An enquiry has disclosed that the misspelling of Axel Rudakubana’s name in the Government’s counter-terrorism database may have hampered his assessment as a possible mass murderer.
The teenager was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years for murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a dance class in Southport on July 29, last year.
The Government’s review of the Prevent programme found that Rudakubana’s case was closed “prematurely” after three referrals for an interest in knives and mass atrocities between December 2019 and April 2021.
While his surname was correctly spelled in 2019, it was misspelled in 2021, which meant that anti-terror officers “may not have been able to see a previous referral”.
Axel Rudakubana had his name misspelled on the Prevent report
PA
Security Minister Dan Jarvis
GB News
Security minister Dan Jarvis told MPs on Wednesday: “The Prevent learning review found that there was sufficient risk for the perpetrator to have been managed through Prevent. It found that the referral was closed prematurely, and there was sufficient concern to keep the case active while further information was collected.”
However, Southport MP Patrick Hurley told the chamber “it beggared belief” that the report noted Rudakubana’s name was spelled incorrectly on the Prevent database. The review said Rudakubana’s surname was misspelt as Prevent officers tried to assess his danger.
It read: “The supervisor may not have been able to see the previous referral … because the first case record was created under a slightly different spelling…As the supervisor was unable to find the previous referral…this may have caused the case to be closed quickly on minimal information.
“This may be due to the second referral being created on a new subject/individual entity due to the misspelling of [Rudakubana’s] surname.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
A review into the handling of Rudakubana under the Government’s counter-terrorism programme Prevent found there was an “under-exploration” of the significance of the 18-year-old’s repeat referrals, including his history of violence.
The teenager attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, used school computers to look up the London Bridge terror outrage and carried a knife on a bus and into class before he carried out the Southport murders.
The review found Rudakubana’s research of school shootings, talking about stabbing people and saying the terrorist attack on ‘MEN’, believed to refer to the Ariana Grande concert attack at the Manchester Arena in 2017, “may have shown a real interest in terrorism”.
The final referral was made by a teacher from Acorns School on April 26, 2021, after Rudakubana was found searching the internet for information about bombings in London and seemed to be interested in the Israel-Palestine conflict, MI5 and the IRA.
The Glade of Light Memorial dedicated to the memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017
PA
However, the referral was dismissed, partly on the grounds that an interest in current affairs can be an autistic trait.
The review said: “Rudakubana’s potential autism spectrum disorder and ‘special interest’, which frequently are combined, are part of the reasons that make him susceptible to being drawn into terrorism.
“When taken in context the potential special interests in mass killings, terrorist acts and a capability to commit violence, then there is a potential vulnerability to being drawn into terrorism.”
The case was closed on May 10.
