Southport report lays bare the failures of authorities - and the attacker's parents

I do think the parents should be held partly responsible for what happened.

So do I, they lied to and were obstructive towards the agencies and people from those agencies. They also enabled him to amass his haul of weapons.

Other people's children have borne the consequences of their abject failure to parent their son.

I blame him. I blame his parents and I blame our government including agencies like Prevent. (I had Prevent training recently and I couldn’t believe what I was listening to). I’m so angry that this happened. It was entirely preventable. I agree, that others who made excuses for this man should also be in prison.

I do think the parents should be held partly responsible for what happened.

Also he was referred to PREVENT 3 times!!! But apparently didn’t ’meet the criteria’ for any further action… what the fucking hell?!

It was asked in parliment today

The parents should be prosecuted

When are the people within these various agencies going to face consequences for their failures? Time and time and time again other people pay the price for their failures and what happens to them? Sweet fuck all, we just hear more weasel words about lessons being learnt.

This states that his escalating behaviour was dismissed because he was autistic: https://www.thetimes.com/article/579e74df-8515-42ac-9f2f-888f09b6bed6?shareToken=72092fb6a287d23cf402cb6836bc10a6&ver=article

(Share token link)

"[The judge] also found that Rudakubana’s parents bore “considerable blame for what occurred” by obstructing efforts by mental health and social services to intervene."

The report gives several examples of dismissing concerns due to his autism.

i didn’t read the whole thing but I haven’t yet found an example of concerns being dismissed due to his ethnicity

Who said they were dismissed because of ethnicity?

My suspicion is they were dismissed due to his autism.

And rightly so. I am tired of excuses being made for and by people who failed to do even the bare minimum that a civilised society would expect.

It was clear from the report (or at least the news story about it in this evening's Times) that the parents actively obstructed what little authority involvement there was. They - along with all the authority figures who failed to act/closed files/referred the matter on for another meeting scheduled in three months time - are at least partially responsible for what happened and should be punished accordingly.

This could be explosive.

"In the House of Commons, Chris Philp responds to the Southport Inquiry, expressing his frustration that a School Headteacher’s concerns were dismissed due to the attacker’s ethnicity."

Absolutely true and I said this on threads at the time

What failed him and those victims were not individual services, but the system that doesnt recognise this and wont or cant act until harm is done

For people saying he had a knife, he attacked a school child, he ordered weapons, he made threats. Im afraid to say that is happening day to day now, the only difference is thankfully the vast majority of those children (both male and female) havent committed murder. But they have been violent, excluded from school, no service can meet their needs, no intervention is taking place because there isnt one. Youth justice services wont or cant criminalise, same with the courts.

@StillSpartacus I agree! Cross posted but similar sentiments.

Sadly nothing will change.

The rights of individuals are now such that they will continue to walk free until they commit abysmal atrocities.

Public safety is a secondary consideration.

I'm not sure how it happened, or why. Is it a human rights thing? If so, it seems to be placing more humans in direct danger!

I'm not sure the authorities would deem anyone to be simply 'bad' any more.

They are either psychiatrically unwell, or able to be redeemed in some way.

I think they are trying to be PC. But I wish they would just do the right thing and get these people off the streets without a tragedy having to happen first 💔

It is appalling that 3 innocent young fun-loving girls were killed and my thoughts are with their families today as they deal with the report, knowing their daughters should still be with them.

My overall sense is that too many of our services are designed to fail. There aren’t enough suitable facilities for violent young men - and it is usually men - so there is pressure on staff to reduce the demand for placements by downgrading risk assessments. There is also a significant number of staff who believe they can/have/will fix these individuals, despite the objective evidence suggesting otherwise.

For public protection, there needs to be enough secure accommodation to contain dangerous psychopaths and acceptance that not everyone can remain free.

I read the inquiry transcripts, it's much worse than what's reported in the media...
Reg. The cash. AR was given money by the father, AR was getting rewarded 50 pounds every time he was showering for instance, because lately he was neglecting his personal hygiene which is also a sign of disconnecting from reality and deep discomfort. It was a text book case.

It’s an interesting report.

it’s clear that this is not within the remit of prevent as they have a very specific remit with respect to terrorism and AR did not fit that remit.

CAMHS in many areas will not even take referrals for autistic children and teens as autism is not a MH issue.

SS and the safeguarding framework is not really capable of dealing with a situation where the child is the cause of danger.

i used to teach and there were quite a few teens who brought knives etc to school. As far as I’m aware there’s no service to work with them.

He had committed crimes, he took a knife to school, he battered a child with a hockey stick, he was on terrorist sites online and he was found with a knife on a bus and told police he wanted to kill someone. How many more crimes did the psycho have to commit before adults locked him in a cell?

But surely a crime had been committed if an under 18 was ordering weapons for delivery to his house? But no-one alerted the police

The big problem with one part of this at least is that stricly speaking he probably didnt have a MH diagnosed or diagnosible condition, so CAMHS wont see a role for themselves

Autism was focused on, which is fine, but what seems to have happened is that his behaviour was not seen as dangerous ergo because he was autistic, something I see on threads here all the time as if someone who is ND cannot be dangerous, just misunderstood or showing a melt down.

The authorities simply can't/won't do much if no crime has been committed - maybe that will change now this is being looked at, but like another poster has said, they don't even do much to young people who HAVE committed a crime. It is going to be interesting to see what they come up with for cases where they are simply worried about future behaviour.

I completely agree. Who gives their child money to buy things that are made to harm others!!! His parents failed here - as well as various agencies.

Maybe or maybe there just isn't any way to help them, some people can't be fixed. If we had a secure facility where they could be held, and a therapy could be developed to help them and if they wanted to be helped because therapy only stands a chance of working if the person engages with it, maybe. So many if's, we definitely need to find some solution because we can't live in a world where young girls at a dance class could be randomly slaughtered.

Whatever measures we can come up with, it will need to start with the parents, I don't care how much 'trauma' they were suffering from (I don't know the details about any of that) they were the first line of defence and they failed.