Exactly. Thats what makes this case a bit different from other cases of teens carrying out crimes where their parents may be neglectful in terms of not knowing what their DC are up to, who they are doing it with or where they are. These parents practically enabled their son to commit this attack.
They knew he had weapons in his bedroom, his state of mind and had taken a knife on a bus previously.
They were concerned enough the week before to prevent their son getting into a taxi to his old school.
The father said he immediately feared his son was involved when he heard about the murders therefore he must have been aware that there was a specific risk of him carrying out an attack like that because most parents would NOT immediately fear their child was involved in something like that.
The mother apparently tried to prevent the father sharing information with a family support worker and now in giving evidence seems to have amnesia about the events leading up to the attack,
They knew he had said he wanted to stab somebody.
Both parents saw him go out that morning but did nothing to try to see where he was going after apparently not going out for over a year. Any parent knowing their child posed that kind of risk. Knowing he had weapons, seeing him go out when they’d stopped him the week before, would have at least gone after them. They would have seen him get into a taxi and immediately tried to stop it or called the police to stop it, they could have checked to see if his weapons were still in his bedroom while on the phone to the police. Amazon said someone who looked over 25 accepted the delivery of knives used in the attack so it wasn’t him.
There were 15 minutes to stop the taxi or get a police car to follow it to stop him when he got to the community centre. The parents said they didn’t see him get into a taxi from the house so he must have got in it away from the house which may have given further time to stop it while he waiting for it/walking to it.
Too right the parents are culpable. He was a ticking time bomb and it looks like they let him go off, horrifically murdering little kids and leaving the other kids and adults looking after them with wounds and after effects for life. They may not have envisaged him attacking little girls but they knew someone was at risk, even themselves with those weapons in his bedroom.
They knew better than anyone else what was going on in their home. They found the weapons, knew he wanted to kill. At the very least all weapons should have been handed in at the police station immediately, knives, scissors, etc, should have been locked away. Once they knew he was buying weapons online, he shouldn’t have had access to any money at all.
I think the police may have taken action if they were alerted to the weapons in his bedroom. Especially as he’d previously taken a knife on a bus, they’d picked him up and he’d said he wanted to stab somebody while in the police car! They may have searched his room and found the ricin. He would have been arrested for having the ricin and the horror he created may have been averted.
This is a not a case of the parents not being aware.
FFS weapons in his bedroom that they knew about!