Southport killer enabled by father

My friend's brother was schizophrenic and kept massive knives by his bedside, tucked out of sight in the corner. My friend showed them to me one day, I was gobsmacked. He never hurt anyone, although he always thought people were after him.

It never occurred to them to report it, they didn't think anyone could help. They knew he saw his GP from time to time but that's all the info they had on this treatment.

I also spent time in their house, even though I knew the knives were there. I assumed they were there for his protection.

Hindsight is wonderful, and I would do things differently and spend less time there, but my friend had to live there.

AR should have been assessed and given early intervention for his autism at primary school. I don’t believe that parents would have been in denial or argued that their child was being labelled.

It seems like parents were left to deal with the situation alone. Maybe CAMHS should pay more attention to parents of undiagnosed or late diagnosed DC. Their experiences of managing at home and their experience of advocating for their child. And trying to avoid ‘help’ that will make things worse. I can remember being on constant suicide watch and CAMHs telling me there was no help unless my autistic son was sectioned. And to avoid this at all costs.

This is a failure of provision of social care at a young age to autistic children and expecting parents to manage until the shit hits the fan and then placing vulnerable young autistic people in settings with those who will bully and exploit them. This policy has lead to suicide, murder of victims, attacks on ‘bullies’ and murder of innocents.

The father is not perfect and with hindsight could have done things differently. But he acted in a context. Unless we change the context nothing will change.

This. He asked for help and was not listened to. I feel sorry for him. Imagine having to live with the guilt he must feel.

We don’t know all the facts.
There were massive mistakes made by the authorities and his parents.

It must have been absolute hell living with him, and they will live in hell for the rest of their lives.

At the risk of sounding like a far right Mary Whitehouse, I think every parent should be legally responsible for the conduct of their under 18 unless they can prove beyond reasonable doubt that they fought for their children, engaged with CAMHS/Social Services/school to try and support them.

For that to work, CAMHS and other services would need to be far better resourced than they are currently. Where I live, only those in the top 2 tiers for CAMHS seem to get any input at all. The wait for the two lower tiers is now so long that any child older than around 10 or 11 at referral reaches adulthood without any meaningful input.

This story is shocking but there are many children carrying knives, making threats and this is not dealt with in a firm enough way to stop them going on and killing people.

How many more young people will die at the hands of other young people before something is changed and we criminalise the knife carriers?

https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2025/june/officers-investigating-the-death-of-a-teenage-boy-in-north-manchester-yesterday-have-arrested-two-people-on-suspicion-of-murder/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d07x39gdxo

Well, for every Bible quote to make a point, there are others that contradict.

Lev 20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
KJV

And there is Duet 21:18- 21. The bit about taking a stubborn and rebellious son to the elders, then off to the city gate to be stoned.

Lots of violence in the bible, I am not sure the Bible would be the best book to use here. As an atheist, I sometimes wonder how much violence religion causes. This family were Christian, and I wonder if this inquiry will touch on what sort of Christianity. was practised. The hell fire and brimstone sort ?

But yes, I agree that not many people could report their child to the Police. I don't think I could.

Exactly. We've seen plenty on here where parents have an out of control teen and have no idea where to turn because nobody wants to know.
Wasn't he reported to Prevent 3 times and nothing was done?
There are lots of agencies to blame for the inaction that led to this tragedy.
This government and previous ones want to hang their heads in shame for the lack of mental health care in this country i stead of bleating on about anxiety and deal with the deeper issues.

He sounds like a traumatised man who was terrified both of his son and of losing his son

I think its difficult to say - he certainly is a factor of what happened but I do understand he was afraid of his son, had another disabled son and had a tough background himself. That said he didn’t help AR and should have tried harder to alert authorities and prevent some of his behaviour. Lots of missed opportunities certainly from various agencies and his parents.

Haven't read today's updates which sound even more troubling. But also noting- two kids with autism, possibly one or both parents might also be affected.

A great point about the machete, you even need verification for a pumpkin carving kit. Presumably a parent took it in?

So sorry for what you're going through with your son

And then there's the posters ridiculing you/telling you to parent your abusive child 😢

I do think the father made some serious errors in judgement. Scared of his son, willfully blind to how dangerous he was becoming. I really feel sorry for the brother. And there were times the father was pushing back strongly against any intervention by external services.

That said, charging as accessory to murder makes no sense. You'd need intent to commit GBH at least or if you're thinking of the old interpretation of the joint enterprise law, even then what's the first crime that they acted together on? Maybe neglect or manslaughter somehow. Perhaps Parliament would consider some sanction for parents whose children go on to commit violent crimes and are proven to have had some knowledge of weapons and so on. Just seems really difficult to enforce, let alone reasonably.

I found it incredible how posters were falling over themselves to defend the killer's parents. Compared to the calling for blood towards the single mum whose son had stupidly joined the riots. If you read the whole thing, including how the abuse towards the kiler's brother was hidden from services. How evasive and aggressive the parents were at times.

I completely agree with this. There is no help for parents of abusive children. They don't even help or think about removing the abusive child when it impacts upon siblings. The child they talk about taking away is the non-violent one.
I feel sorry for the parents and family here. It is agony living in fear of your child. They take over the whole house, control what is said/watched on tv. You always worry that they might kick off, smash the house up or hurt you or one of their siblings. At the same time you are often blamed for everything and you want to protect them.

Being frightened of your child is one thing. Something for which any parent must have great sympathy- there but for the grace of God go I etc.

Knowing your frightening child - the child YOU find frightening - has bought a machete and bow and arrow and NOT reporting this to the police is a completely different thing.

Yes, I think the parents are complicit in a way that mental health services were not. The KNEW he was frightening and dangerous and had access to weapons; whereas mental health services were negligent in NOT knowing this.

I doubt there is any offence with which the parents can be charged- but if there possibly is, I hope they are charged, and convicted. They have behaved in a truly contemptible way and death and suffering have resulted.

I feel chills every time I hear about the Southport killings. I'm not trying to make it about me and my heart aches for the families of the victims but my son has multiple Prevent referrals & I remember twice trying to bribe him to shower. To think that any quiet teenage boy with a lot of issues could do this is sickening.

and the parents should have 100% called the police earlier. I'm not even sure how the machete arrived at their house without age verification/ID

Nothing to do with the father/family.

What would the Police have done if they'd reported him? for what? the Police didn't even act promptly when there were reports of knifeman in Peterborough, hence the force reporting its self to the 'conduct authority.

I doubt very much it even occurred to the family he would carry out such crimes.

I also doubt if this 17yo had been a white kid from a M/C family, we'd have even got this thread.

Torture, yes. Abusive and chaotic childhoods themselves, no.

Sounds like North Korea.

Source:

news.sky.com/story/southport-killer-axel-rudakubana-assessed-as-posing-no-risk-to-others-six-days-before-attack-13454111

Sorry - not seeing the link between plummeting birthrates and increased immigration - I’m just suggesting that the legal responsibility that exists for all parents in every other area of life is extended to them actively parenting their problem children. Unless you feel that the onerousness of actually having to parent one’s children means there will be less need for contraceptives?

No bloody idea how that extends to spouses and teachers… who are NOT legally responsible for the actions of other peoples children or those of other adults?

AR’s initial consultant psychiatrist from alder hey said she found the father so obstructive and intimidating she passed the case over to another, male psychiatrist. Said that’s the only time in her career she’s felt the need to do that. He also obstructed the social workers, making complaints about confidentiality breaches when they shared information.

I think that’s quite telling.

Well that would do a lot to make the birth rate plummet. Useful way to ensure immigration soars I suppose. And then we'd have all these imported people with their torture histories or whatever else in background.

While we're at it, let's make people responsible for crimes their spouse commit, or teachers responsible for the crimes pupils did. Children could be responsible for crimes the parents did. Truly medieval perspective, bring it on.