Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Axel Rudakubana

554 replies

Dylanxoxo · 23/01/2025 20:13

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Cheepcheepcheep · 23/01/2025 20:34

It makes you wonder if there is such a thing as just being born evil.

Totallymessed · 23/01/2025 20:34

FraidSo · 23/01/2025 20:23

His obsessive mask wearing is odd. I presume he thinks there’s something wrong with his teeth, judging by the mugshot which is the only time his lower face isn’t covered by a mask or a jumper pulled upwards. I rather wish the judge had not allowed the mask. Just to make him as uncomfortable as possible.

No, it's just part of his manipulative behaviour in court, denying the people in court the ability to see his face. Weilding whatever power he has to cause upset and pain to others.

devastatedagain · 23/01/2025 20:35

Meecrowahvey · 23/01/2025 20:15

Of course it isn't. If he was found to have any mental illness then his defence team would've tried to use it.

He is just a very, very bad person.

This.

And even if he did have a mental illness, doesn't mean he can murder children can it?

slimpicks · 23/01/2025 20:35

He is a misogynistic psychopath

OnSecondThoughts · 23/01/2025 20:37

Not in the sense of recognised mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or psychosis. However, his mental/social "outlook" is probably severely warped by whatever environment, network or ideology he chose to submerge himself in.

Totallymessed · 23/01/2025 20:38

Tomatotater · 23/01/2025 20:30

I think maybe they felt thete was no point. The same thing happened with Peter Sutcliffe. Clearly an utter psychopath but still found guilty of murder. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in Broadmoor.

I don't think the defence could do that. Apart from anything else, not providing any mitigation available would just give AR an easy route for an appeal - and more attention, and another chance to cause the most pain he can.

augustusglupe · 23/01/2025 20:40

No. He’s just evil.

InkHeart2024 · 23/01/2025 20:42

augustusglupe · 23/01/2025 20:40

No. He’s just evil.

What is 'just evil' though. People who are considered evil have highly disordered personalities. Psychopathic or sociopathic.

Kendodd · 23/01/2025 20:44

I think anyone who can do something like this must be mad. I also that some acts are so horrific that the public just don't care about any mental health problems the perpetrator may have. So, I don't care if he was mad or not, I have no sympathy for him.

EasternStandard · 23/01/2025 20:45

Lowcarbonated · 23/01/2025 20:24

I think he's quite clearly mentally ill but they couldn't have another hoohaa over this case as it's so awful and so high profile, and has become so far reaching with the far right honing in on it. It could cause another load of civil unrest.

It won't be this. His defence team would have used it if they could

TeaAndTattoos · 23/01/2025 20:46

YABU as someone who suffers from depression and anxiety stop trying to blame everything a person does wrong on mental health it’s absolutely nothing to do with mental health and everything to do with being a monster. I live in Southport and my niece should’ve been at the Hart Space that day and changed her mind on the day I would be so unbelievably angry if someone tried to blame what he did on mental health if my niece had been involved.

Reugny · 23/01/2025 20:47

ComeHomeSoonPlease · 23/01/2025 20:24

There is a thread running on this. About the killer saying he is ill.

Nah he just wanted to see medical staff as they were going out of their way to be kind to him unlike everyone else.

Reugny · 23/01/2025 20:48

InkHeart2024 · 23/01/2025 20:42

What is 'just evil' though. People who are considered evil have highly disordered personalities. Psychopathic or sociopathic.

How will saying someone is a psychopath or sociopath help their sentencing?

They don't want them at the prison mental health hospitals as they are extremely manipulative and screw over the actual mentally ill prisoners.

sanityisamyth · 23/01/2025 20:49

'Mental health' is not an excuse or reason for murdering innocent children. Some people are just evil.

UndermyShoeJoe · 23/01/2025 20:49

InkHeart2024 · 23/01/2025 20:42

What is 'just evil' though. People who are considered evil have highly disordered personalities. Psychopathic or sociopathic.

Just wired different. Their thought process is different.

With how many people are now officially diagnosed with some type of ND being “normal” won’t actually be normal eventually and will be seen as being the weird/wrong or whatever types. People wondering how our simple little minds worked.

In theory you could say nobody is ND we are just all diverse but feel the need to label everything to fit in nice little boxes and when someone can just be a horrible murderer and we cannot fit them into a nice little boxes of this or that it panics people. But shitty people have always existed and those shitty people
don’t see themselves as shitty just as you probably don’t see yourself as shitty in any type of way but there will always be someone who thinks your a dick for something you’ve done or believe in.

disclaimer not you personally before I get deleted for personally attacks or something.

ThePoshUns · 23/01/2025 20:49

As soon as he arrived in police custody a MH assessment would have been completed.

PietariKontio · 23/01/2025 20:50

No one, even a mental health professional would diagnose someone without meeting them, so none of us can say categorically whether he is or he isn’t.

Any declaration of certainty are to be considered cautiously - although something like ‘if he was the defence would have raised it’ is a weak argument; he wouldn’t have been the first defendant to get poor legal advice.

He himself may not have wanted it to be used as a defence initially so his whole defence ignored it. We won’t have any knowledge therefore of any diagnosis that was made prior to it.

Additionally he might not have consented to any MH assessments, so no diagnosis was able to be made accurately

As miuch as some people like the idea of not giving someone an excuse of mental illness or disorder, he might well have a mental illness or maybe more likely, a mental disorder such as psychopathy.

Ho horrendous a crime doesn’t dictate the likelihood either way of the perp have disorder or illness.

All we know is that he’s been considered mentally fit and found guilty. I’d love to have trust in the legal system to be sure his fitness is accurate, his advice is appropriate and the clamour to convict and the will to not be seen as ‘going soft’ hasn’t led to poor treatment of someone, if unwell, has been poorly served.

maxplanck · 23/01/2025 20:50

I’ve read that he’s autistic and had a fixation on extreme violence and death. I’ve seen footage of him trying to attack a fellow pupil with a knife in year 7/8. He also rang Childline in 2019 asking whether they could help someone who wanted to kill. Why on earth he wasn’t sectioned and admitted to a secure hospital because that is no way normal.

lakesandplains · 23/01/2025 20:52

Agree @maxplanck - of course the inquiry will doubtless reveal a catalogue of failures and few of any changes will get made...

NuffSaidSam · 23/01/2025 20:53

There's something wrong with him mentally, that's clear and obvious.

There's no such thing as 'evil'. All behaviour is controlled by processes in the brain.

But I don't think he has a diagnosed/diagnosable mental health complaint that could be treated. It's more fundamental than that. I think doing some research on him would be worthwhile.

ContactNightmare · 23/01/2025 20:53

He probably has a personality disorder; those aren't "mental health" or particularly treatable.

His lack of empathy, enjoyment of sadism and grandiose efforts to control matters suggest so.

UnrealisticGoals25 · 23/01/2025 20:54

Wondering what kind of childhood he had as clearly something went very wrong

Shityshitybangbang · 23/01/2025 20:54

Pure and utter evil like Iain Brady. The death penalty should be available for these sort of cases.

Tomatotater · 23/01/2025 20:54

maxplanck · 23/01/2025 20:50

I’ve read that he’s autistic and had a fixation on extreme violence and death. I’ve seen footage of him trying to attack a fellow pupil with a knife in year 7/8. He also rang Childline in 2019 asking whether they could help someone who wanted to kill. Why on earth he wasn’t sectioned and admitted to a secure hospital because that is no way normal.

Edited

He was also referred to Prevent several times. He should have been sectioned. Someone should have followed up the prevent referrals. It seems like all these reporting procedures are just box ticking exercises.

Lonelycrab · 23/01/2025 20:55

Simply evil

Just like ian huntley, salman abedi, anders brevik, michael ryan and a huge number of the most horrendous humans ever to walk our planet.

The human race will, by numbers, always produce people (mostly men it has to be said) that are utterly evil. I think it always will.

That’s no consolation to anyone I know but it’s an observation.