The parents of the Southport killer could still face criminal charges after police today confirmed they are assessing the testimony they gave to the public inquiry.
Merseyside Police said they would be ‘obtaining full transcripts’ of the hearings from last week, when Axel Rudakubana‘s parents, Alphonse and Laetitia Muzayire, spent two days in the witness box.
Today, a solicitor representing the parents of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, who were murdered, welcomed the police’s decision to evaluate their evidence and said they were ‘confident’ criminal charges would follow.
Mr Rudakubana admitted on oath that he and his wife knew their ‘monster’ son had amassed an arsenal of knives and other weapons and was planning on carrying out an attack on his old school a week before he went on the rampage with a knife at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July last year.
But the couple, who survived the genocide in their home country of Rwanda before being granted asylum in the UK, failed to alert police or any other agency.
‘I regret not telling police because if I had, what happened on 29th July, wouldn’t have happened,’ Mr Rudakubana, 50, admitted.
The revelations prompted the parents of the murdered girls to call for Rudakubana’s mother and father to be held ‘accountable’.
‘They knew how dangerous he was, yet they stayed silent,’ Elsie’s mother and father, Jenni and David Stancombe, said.
Axel Rudakubana was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 52 years, at Liverpool Crown Court in January
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were all murdered in the atrocity on July 29, 2024
Alphonse Rudakubana – the killer’s father
‘They didn’t report their concerns, they didn’t act, and in doing so, they failed not only as parents but as members of our society.’
It is understood that the Rudakubanas were investigated as part of Merseyside Police’s wider criminal inquiry into the attack.
After their son was jailed for a minimum of 52 years, in January, the force confirmed consideration was being given to charges against ‘those who may have assisted Axel Rudakubana or failed to prevent his crimes’.
Six months later, in June, a spokesman said it had been determined that ‘no further charges’ would be brought because the evidence gathered did not pass the ‘police threshold’ of criminality.
Asked whether that situation had changed, in light of evidence given to the public inquiry, or whether they were considering re-opening their investigation into the Rudakubanas, a spokesman for Merseyside Police today said: ‘We will obtain full transcripts from the inquiry and assess whether new information was provided that wasn’t known.’
The spokesman added that previously ‘a file wasn’t submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service because the evidence held at that time didn’t pass the police threshold meaning there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction for any offence’.
Chris Walker, a solicitor with law firm Bond Turner, who represents the families of Elsie, Bebe and Alice, said: ‘We wish to express our full support for any reopening or re-examination of the evidence in relation to the conduct of AR’s (Axel Rudakubana’s) parents.
‘Any further inquiry into the behaviour in question is unequivocally supported by all of our clients. We are confident that a criminal investigation will conclude that an offence has been committed.’
Jenni and David Stancombe and Lauren and Ben King pictured arriving at the public inquiry, in Liverpool
Rudakubana was caught on CCTV walking to a bus stop on the day of the murders
The former stage school star who featured in a BBC Children in Need advert at 11
Pictured: The three-bedroom home in Banks, Lancashire, where the killer had been living with his parents is set to be sold by One Vision Housing
The family home, where he appeared to have been sleeping in the living room
Mr Rudakubana, whose parents and three sisters were murdered in the Rwandan civil war, admitted to the inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, that he was ‘ashamed’ that he had allowed Axel to be repeatedly violent towards him in the years preceding the attack.
Neither he or his wife restricted their son’s access to the Internet, leaving him free to look up inappropriate videos and images of war, genocide and gory injuries online.
When Axel became reclusive and started to neglect his own personal hygiene, his parents also bribed him with cash to wash – money which he used to buy a stash of weapons including knives, machetes and a bow and arrow.
Mr Rudakubana admitted he intercepted some packages but did not confront Axel on their contents, claiming he was too tired from his job as a taxi driver to read the labels, or too scared of the violent consequences.
A week before the attack, he prevented his son from leaving home in a taxi, suspecting he was planning to attack his old school, yet did not alert the authorities.
The following week – on the day of the attack at the Hart Space – Mr and Mrs Rudakubana saw Axel leave home alone but again failed to raise the alarm, even after finding empty packaging for a knife soon afterwards.
Both apologised at the inquiry and admitted they could have done much more, with Mr Rudakubana saying he was blinded by the ‘pure love’ he had for his son and the fear he would be taken away into care if they reported him.
Mrs Rudakubana agreed she had been ‘really naïve’ and had misunderstood the risk her son posed.
Yet in written statements, the bereaved families said the couple had shown ‘no real remorse’ and described their evidence as ‘deeply disturbing and shameful.’
Bebe’s parents, Lauren and Ben King said: ‘Time after time, they had opportunities to intervene, to stop this, to protect others. If they had acted with any real sense of duty, Bebe, Elsie and Alice would still be here. It is that simple.’
The first phase of oral hearings at the inquiry has now finished with chairman Sir Adrian Fulford expected to publish his report early next year.
