Axel Rudakubana

[Dylanxoxo]

I haven't seen anything in articles I have read about Axel Rudakubana today about a mental health assessment. His behaviour is so extreme, that it is difficult not to suspect he is suffering from an untreated mental health condition. Does anyone else think that mental illness may be at the root of his horrific crimes?

Are you sure? Did you miss the judge's sentencing statement

@EasternStandard pp is referring to a very technical element of sentencing law for a trial of fact. She's absolutely right.

I do believe he is just an evil person. It’s hard for us comprehend his despicable actions, but if he was mentally ill his legal team would’ve been all over it. Surely he’s had psych assessments done though out the last 6 months. I feel it would be another low to blame this on mental health. He caused as much disruption as he could yesterday to cause more pain and trauma.

You're going to have to say more on what you're supporting

There was no psych report from the defence team. There has been no indication that wasn't a possibility. Can you point to where you have read it wasn't?

If there was mitigation there would have been a trial.

And this is just incorrect as a statement. Sentencing always covers any mitigation with or without a trial.

The point was, had his mental health or psychological state been of relevance and in contention, it could have been considered in two ways (mutually exclusive)

A) as part of a mitigating submission (no trial of fact) on his mentality

B) as part of a sentencing trial of fact

Neither occurred. Nor the prosecution nor the defence made a submission for a) and b) no sentencing trial occurred.

Nor was there the possibility of c) where both parties agreed as to a position.

Instead, there was a very short series of submissions by his defence.

That was presumably because while you can pretty much anything under a) as defence counsel, there was little to nothing that would have made a difference to the outcome.

His age had to be mentioned to make a lawful sentence. Otherwise he could have appealed it

Ok great but even the judge knows how to put forward arguments in a compelling and simple way.

A psych report could have been put forward and the judge would have reflected on that at sentencing.

Not having a trial doesn’t change that.

Sentencing always includes any mitigations with or without a trial.

Obsessed with violence. No empathy. Evil.

Completely agree. Some parents are totally blind to the risk their children pose, even faced with hard evidence about what they’ve been up to in the community. One such little darling is now doing a long stretch for murder, like this POS.

@EasternStandard why would have a judge done that? What would have been the point?

To protect people from him perhaps?

It's happened before with another high profile case so not without precedent

I don't care either way - whether he's in prison or hospital

I was responding to another poster so needs to be read in that context

It happens regularly. Unfortunately there are lots of personality disordered in prison, which is often reflected in what the person did, and is assessed as part of criminal dangerousness in law. That will be done as part of a lawful sentence.

That was easy to establish from the facts and the admission of guilt.

The agony for the families in have a report of psychological evidence which could have been tested but would not have affected the sentencing outcome at all in practice would not have been worth it.

There was more than enough to deal with vile man on the facts. Like other sadists who end up in prison.

His parents weren't blind otherwise they wouldn't have called the police on him 4 times in a 6 month period nor would his dad have convinced the taxi not to take him anywhere when one was called to their house. Remember he took at taxi away from his house on that day.

There is a gap in services as a PP has written in detail about. There are also issues with consent when someone gets over the age of 13 but particularly when they are 16.

I should add I know people involved or were quite recently involved in both mental services and violent crime in youth, plus I know people caught up in the system with different diagnosis.

I confess that his upbringing is a mystery and is likely highly relevant to how he was. There are a lot of questions there. But we will never know. It wasn't relevant to his sentencing.

Yes, but if there is a guilty plea, the mitigation is age, prior offences, how soon he pleaded guilty, remorse etc.

If there was significant mitigation, I maintain there would be a trial.

He was of sound enough mind to specifically choose victims who were vulnerable. He didn't go into a pub full of blokes who would have faught back. He knew what he was doing and planned it for a long time.

With so many weapons in the family home, how were his parents not aware of them?

Something that stood out to me, correct me if I'm wrong, was that the weapons and ricin were found in his bedroom but he appeared to be sleeping in the living room. Which seems unusual.

It seems the family did ask for help and I think even contact the police many times. I wonder if they were also living in fear. I'm hoping if we are patient this will all be covered in the inquest and the parents will have a part to play in that.

Or maybe at some point they will do an interview or speak publicly although of course that could majorly backfire on them.

Totally agree with @Reugny ~ my DB has had plenty of mental health issues that led to him being admitted into an 'institution' at 16. Prior to what forced the admittance (the 5th, hospitalised suicide attempt in 2 weeks) the police were involved plenty and it was horrifying watching each burst of violence against others/attempt to kill himself being met with feeble referrals to services that would take weeks to do anything. I really don't understand what parents are supposed to do in these situations when they can't access the help they know they need.

@Choccyscofffy that still means a psych report could have been put forward at sentencing

In fact the BBC and others made note that it wasn't

Mitigations are always part of sentencing

I would think he has a personality disorder of some kind, his lack of empathy or remorse would indicate that, which is not something he can help.

These are just the basics in law to make a lawful sentence. You make it sound very significant when it isn't. @Choccyscofffy is referring correctly to the law that applies.

There was another thread about this what i read through and then I decided to google him. The boy is evil! The stuff they found in his house is just unbelievable, the mental health illness he has is his obsession with violence and death! He had brought beans to extract poison from them, knifes and history of looking up terrorism acts he was planning to do something really really bad if he got away with killing those poor little girls! He should be sentenced to death the boy has no remorse and doesn't care about what he has done. He is a vile, disgusting waste of oxygen!

He’s been assessed and he doesn’t have and mental health issues if he had he would certainly have used them as his defence to get a lower sentence in a hospital rather than a prison. I think this guy is so depraved that he planned to carry this out a week before his 18th birthday because he knew that a minor couldn’t be given a whole life term.

@ContactNightmare I'm not making it 'sound like anything' it's just a statement of fact

Mitigations are part of sentencing, actually a major part since the whole aim is to determine how long they get