Should the parents of the Southport Killer face civil or even criminal action?

[mids2019]

Listening to the news I do wonder if the parental decisions of the Southport Killer reach a point where they need to face some sort of accountability. I understand that the parents aren't to blame but potentially they could have acted to stop their son and is there not some sort of sanction for this?

So they paid him money to take showers and he spent that on knives and a machete, which they accepted delivery of. He was in their house, they should not have accepted delivery of illegal weapons, once they knew about them they should have got rid of them or told the police to have them removed.

They should not have given him any money. They did, they enabled his crimes.

Agree with this. That person needs to be fired (the person who struck out the information about how dangerous he was)

A lot more than most people would like to think I reckon.

I think to make a blanket statement that they didn’t ask for help is incorrect and black and white thinking.

They asked for help, but failed to share the full extent of what was going on. They did conceal vital information.

Thank goodness

3 beautiful, beautiful little girls sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
And they wonder why people were angry 😡

I think it's complicated as they were clearly afraid of their son but there are elements of complicity too. Knowing the weapons were in the house is one very obvious, clear warning sign.

Excellent post @PeonyPatch .
I agree with every word.

I would hope that most parents would feel it was their responsibility to do everything they could for their children - including reaching out to authorities to the point of annoyance if they felt like their child was going to commit a crime. I'd do it, not only for other people but also I wouldn't want my child to be a murderer.

Yes but I didn't mean where the DV victim has allowed the death of their own child.

If a DA offender went out to punch someone in the street or murder someone, we wouldn't blame the DA victim for not stopping it.

Anyway as I said, I think they are accountable for failing to report him, failing to report his acquisition of weapons, threatening and abusive behaviour, but not explicitly the murder of those little girls.

The parents should, not could, have done more...their negligence is culpable, and the consequences not unseen, as guns, knives etc have a habit of being used by angry wicked young men.

Prosecute them.

Weapons, knives, guns....use your phone, parents.

You sometimes see those ignorant posts “I’d do anything for my children”. Well that’s what these parents did and look what happened. Other people’s children had to pay the ultimate price.

I’ve been reading about this case and my word, it would seem the parents were criminally negligent. According to what’s come out, he (killer) had stopped speaking to his father months ago but would regularly have extreme fits of rage and throw stuff at him. The parents knew he had an obsession with violence and also that he was stockpiling weapons. The father stepped in to stop him from setting fire to his school. The older brother genuinely thought that at some point his brother would kill. The mum prevented the dad from revealing the true horror of what was happening at home, to social services.

As a parent, it’s a total nightmare - no one wants to hand their own child in. But at the same time, if you are worried they might kill someone, you have zero choice. You can’t just pretend that’s not happening. To do so, makes you culpable in some way I think.

It is clear to me that the parents of Radakubana have to bear some responsibility for the murder of three little girls. What I am puzzled by is how their desire to protect their other son didn't force them to act. The whole family, for months, slept in a house with a person they knew was aggressive, and with lethal weapons in the house.

One factor mentioned only infrequently is that the parents live with the trauma of the Rwandan genocide. That will have had a profound impact on their children too (which is not to exonerate the parents or son). In view of that, it astonishes me that successive agencies, including social workers and Prevent, weren't tracking this family more consistently. The head at Radakubana's second school could see that he was high risk but was accused by social workers of racial stereotyping so modified her records. As with the rape gangs and the Girl Guides, critical faculties are clouded by progressive ideologies.

Lots of young people like this are considered by CAMHS to not have a MH condition though. Not treatable, not a MH clincial disorder. They call it 'behavioural'.

Being under 'the care' of CAMHS is utterly meaningless as a statement. They dont 'treat' anyone, they wont diagnose very often, rarely. They view most behaviours like this as not a distinct MH condition. They wont diagnose PD or psychosis disorders pre 18, rarely even diagnosiing neuroses diagnoses pre 18.

Who was the SW who did that?

It was not revealed in the interview I read with the head teacher. I've just read it again and have to apologise as the intervention was by a mental health worker, not a social worker. www.spectator.co.uk/article/rudakubanas-school-knew-he-was-trouble/

Some parents should be prosecuted.

I know of parents who gifted their blue-eyed blond haired 14 yr old thug a crossbow for Christmas. Thank God he didn't kill people with it.

I don't doubt that they were scared of their son, I don't doubt that they wanted to protect him but sometimes parents have to make very difficult decisions regarding their children especially in extreme cases like this. I believe they should have done more , they should have reported him to the police , they should have handed the knives over to them.

I also think its perfectly possible to be frightened of someone but also frightened they would be put in care/sectioned or whatever

You can have two opposing feelings or views which are seeming contradictions, thats humans for you.

The problem parents face in situations like this, is that even if they report things like the knives to the police - then what?

The police aren't going to permanently remove the dangerous young adult from the home. The police won't keep the parents safe after they basically grass up their own son. They might come and take the knives, they might arrest the offender - but then they will be released on bail. Sent back home, most likely, but now absolutely furious with their parents for reporting their knives to the police.

So yeah, the parents should have reported the knives to the police, of course they should, but I can see why they didn't. The police wouldn't have kept them safe afterwards. They'd then have had their dangerous son back home and this time with a grudge against them. It wouldn't have been a safe thing for them to do.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting the parents were right in their decision - and I don't think I'd have made the same decision myself. I'm just glad I haven't had to make a decision like that tbh.

And then risk him coming back to the house and killing them, maybe, when the police just sent him back home? Things aren’t as easy as you’re making out when you live with a murderous maniac who has NO boundaries or limit whatsoever. Imagine being trapped in the house with him when you’ve just dobbed him into the police!

Exactly.

People who haven't dealt with this sort of situation think it's as simple as "report to the police" and then problem solved.

No.

Problem magnified, but probably still under their roof.

Because the services that might once have been available to support a person like AR and protect the parents have been gutted and basically no longer exist.

I have a relative with a very violent and disturbed adult son.

i can’t tell you the lengths that she went to, to her own very significant detriment, not to get the authorities involved beyond a little GP-prescribed antidepressant.

She didn’t want the authorities in their lives. It was just the two of them in the house. She was absolutely terrified of him. He had nowhere else to live unless she threw him out (see above, age was terrified). She also loved him and had raised him from a baby.

It was such a terrible hardship for her.