That picture of the Southport killer

[User09678]

That has been circulating today.

Remember that sweet boy that was in all the reports at the time? The one who looked about nine?

Can anyone think of any other serious criminal who has pictures of them as a child out in the press?

It’s widely reported in the press if you care to look. He attended school with a knife and a hockey stick marked with names of the people he wanted to target, he attacked a teacher and had to be restrained. The incident of him booking a taxi armed with a knife with the intention of another attack occurred a few weeks before the murders.

@WettyBite it's possible, but journalists will have more cynical motivations than you'd think.

Owning a book on pipework and drainage wouldn't make me a plumber.

He hasn’t been charged for being an Islamic terrorist either.

No terror motive has been established.

Multiple killer issues statement/manifesto making it clear the killings are politically motivated, but is white: Killer has terrible mental health issues.

No evidence of coherent political motivation and no claims of same, but multiple killer has brown skin: Killer is an Islamic extremist.

Well he might've been referred/on a waiting list for MH , you know the years long ones.

Rudakubana was described as having a volatile character, anger issues, and was prone to act with violence.
He attended the Range High School in Formby where he began having problems with violence in Year 9.
Fellow pupils remember him having an obsession with despotic figures including Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. He is also known to have accessed information about the IRA.
Rudakubana was excluded from the school in October 2019, aged 13, after which he returned to the school in December 2019 with a hockey stick and assaulted a pupil, breaking their wrist. He had to be restrained by a teacher.
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Southport attacker admits murdering three girls
After this, he attended The Acorns School, which provides specialist education for those with extra needs, and was then enrolled in Presfield High School & Specialist College.
He only attended sixth form there for a few days and was largely dealt with by home visits. The school would sometimes ask for police to attend when they visited.
It was revealed last August he had an "autism spectrum disorder diagnosis" and had been "unwilling to leave the house and communicate with family for a period of time".
Rudakubana called Childline several times as a young teenager, eventually telling the service he was going to take a knife into school because of racial bullying.
This was one of the incidents that led to him be excluded from Range High School.
The NSPCC said Rudakubana's last call to Childline was "sufficiently serious to breach a threshold" which led Childline to inform local authorities of its concerns in 2019.

He was assessed as a teen as having likely mental ill-health .

Guardian reporting that source at mental health services said the system was in a ‘dire state’.

I don’t believe having an “interest” in those things is a chargeable offence.

Yep. Black Christian commits a murder and still somehow the muslims are to blame.

I don't think many care what religion he is or his motivation. They care about the children he murdered.

It’s the Family Guy meme in full effect!

Eh? Aren’t trial dates set months in advance?

He has been charged with offences under the Terrorism Act 2000.

This is clearly a lie. As we even see in this thread with people desperate to claim he was an islamic terrorist.

Well he might've been referred/on a waiting list for MH , you know the years long ones.

Again I don't think that's much comfort to the victims families...

He has not been charged with being an Islamic terrorist and no terrorism motive has been established.

To be clear:

”She said he now faces one charge of the "production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974".

He also faces a terror charge of possession of information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000".

However, police have not declared the events of 29 July a terrorist incident.
"For a matter to be declared as a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established," Chief Constable Kennedy said.”

Your claim that he was “an islamic terrorist” is without foundation unless you have motive.

I feel it's more that people are heightened to any situation involving crime, reporting and media coverage of anyone who might fall into certain categories right now - including Muslim. I don't believe this is a blanket case of lets blame Muslims.

Instead, it is for some; does being Muslim have any bearing on the handling of cases in the spotlight right now. Because there's examples to suggest it might. That does not equate automatically to ' A Muslim did it innit'.

I agree with most of your posts.

This is clearly a lie. As we even see in this thread with people desperate to claim he was an islamic terrorist.

I said many, not all....
As I said I'm not interested in arguing about why he committed the crimes.

Let’s also remember his family. What a nightmarish ordeal for them.

When I look at this young man I can see he looks seriously unwell and disturbed. Many people must have known this before he killed the little girls at the dance class, and not enough was done to address his issues clearly. There needs to be an investigation into his background to see if anything could have been done sooner. What was missed and why.

I do believe the child narrative - which he technically is/was was encouraged to calm the growing public discontent. I would do the same, it would not have helped to have published frightening photos of him at that point, when anger was at boiling point. The migrants in our country would have been even more vulnerable to attacks. I am content it was done for the right reasons.

My sympathy and thoughts are with the families of his victims.

How do you think his photograph would have been kept off other platforms though?
The names and photographs of the killers of Brianna Ghey were all over social media long before they were officially released.
It’s more likely there just wasn’t an updated photograph of AR that anyone had.

This guy isn’t even a muslim though.

Dont be ridiculous, the courts run to when hearings are fitted in months ago and court availability and judge availability

Why would the home secretary or prime minister be involved, how many other murders do you think come to their special attention. Unfortunately people commit awful crimes all the time

So what would you have liked "them" to say? "Sorry M'Lud but it's Trump's big day on that date, do you think we can postpone until the British public can decide on which 5 weeks they'd like it to be held?"

I think understanding motive us important to understand what could have been done. It does appear that enough was known about his obsession with violence and death but that current processes in place were insufficient to prevent this from occurring.

At a minimum the fact he was not referred to mental health services seems bonkers to me (or maybe he was I don’t know.)

I saw the children in need video he did as well. He just looked like any young lad that age and I agree he was cute. It's hard to fathom what happened in the years leading up to what he did. I know neighbours said his dad teaches karate. But they also said he hardly left the house. I'm guessing lockdown had an affect on his mental health.