Prevent’s assessment of the danger posed by Axel Rudakubana followed policy at the time, an official review will find but it will criticise the scheme for rejecting extra help to tackle his interest in violence.
This week the government is expected to publish the review into Prevent’s handling of the three referrals of Rudakubana, the last of which was three years before he commited his atrocity on a school summer holiday dance class in Southport.
The decisions of Prevent, the official scheme to spot people before they become terrorists, have been criticised by the prime minister, and the government has announced inquiries into what it does and how wide its remit is.
Sir Peter Fahy, the former police lead for Prevent, warned the revelations about the scheme’s three rejections of adopting Rudakubana’s case – which were first reported by the Guardian – have plunged counter-terrorism into one of its worst reputational crises.
Some in policing compare their willingness to answer questions after Rudakubana changed his plea to guilty last Monday to those in mental health and other sectors, who they say have avoided answering questions.
Prevent learning reviews are not usually made public but the government has decided to make an exception for the one into the Southport killer. Some of the families worst affected by the atrocity have had access to a copy since Friday.
Counter-terrorism policing is bracing itself for further criticism when it is made public, as Rudakubana had been deemed unsuitable for Prevent because he did not follow any ideology.
Fahy said: “counter-terrorism policing has been damaged reputationally, it has been in the forefront of criticism. There is a misunderstanding about what Prevent is about.
“I hope the public inquiry will look at this in totality of all the demand there is on the police and other services, otherwise there is a danger of them being overwhelmed.”
Fahy said cuts to other services have led to more work for Prevent: “More referrals are going into Prevent as other services have been cut because of austerity.”
Neil Basu, the former head of counter-terrorism, told the Guardian a new scheme should be set up to tackle those obsessed with extreme violence, and Prevent’s focus on spotting terrorists should not be diluted.
He said: “The narrative danger of the current conversation is you don’t know the scale of this problem – you massively underestimate it – and you will assume they can all be stopped. They can’t. The reality of both is that both conclusions are disturbing. The scale is vast and you’ll never stop them all. It shouldn’t stop us trying though and the review is the best place to start …
“You do need a parallel well-funded system that doesn’t expand and divert the counter-terrorism mission.”
Rudakubana was first referred to Prevent in 2019, aged 13, and then twice in 2021, all when he was a schoolchild living in Lancashire.
He was referred the first time over an interest in school massacres and after he had been violent at school. His second was over his interest in former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi and the final one was after he showed interest in the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attack, as well as other issues.
At the age of 17 he stabbed three young girls to death, and admitted the attempted murder of eight others, as well as two adults, possessing an al-Qaida terrorist manual and producing the biological toxin ricin.
In all, as the judge noted in sentencing, Rudakubana had one conviction before the Southport attacks. In February 2020, aged 13, he took a knife to school and admitted assault and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. He was made subject to a juvenile referral order.
Rudakubana was under the care of Alder Hey Children’s NHS foundation trust from 2019 to 2023 when he stopped engaging, the trust said.
The stabbings were carried out with a knife bought from Amazon by the then 17-year-old Rudakubana and, on Sunday, the Home Office said it was toughening rules aimed at thwarting sales to those aged below 18.
Photo identification will need to be shown when knives are bought and then when delivered. They can only be handed over to the person who bought them.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “It’s too easy to put in false birth dates, parcels are too often being dropped off at a doorstop with no questions asked.
“We cannot go on like this. We need much stronger checks – before you buy, before it’s delivered.”
Source: theguardian.com
