This. There clearly is something mentally not right with him, and in that sense he's probably mentally ill, yes. But it shouldn't mean he doesn't face the consequences of his actions.
That said, as someone who works with troubled teens in a PRU, 99% of those kids on our books are involved or have been involved with CAMHS, and 80% of them have some kind of mental illness such as anxiety, OCD, depression etc. Some of those kids have committed crimes such as muggings, assault, theft etc.... their mental illnesses don't change their committing of those crimes (I know this is much different in terms of severity- I'm not meaning to offend anyone with the comparison). So whilst this is a really extreme version of this, it's the same isn't it; what's in question, I suppose, is if they- and Rudakubana- can be said to have been in full control of themselves when they committed their crimes. How we judge that is not for the likes of me or you to decide, there are criteria and professionals who do that job. And Rudakubana must have been deemed to have been in full possession of his wits and must therefore take full responsibility, otherwise his defence would have had him diagnosed as part of the pre-trial preparation.
On another note, I spend all day every day dealing with CAMHS and similar agencies and they are worth a wank. I'm not surprised to hear that Prevent are no better, either. As an example- not the worst, just the most recent- I was talking to CAMHS today about a 14 year old boy who's been with us since Christmas after being permanently excluded from mainstream after bringing a weapon into school. He's under a Child Protection order due to parental neglect and because of dad having a drug habit which has led to him recently being sentenced to a short spell in prison (dad was small-time dealing, as well as taking the drugs, using the family home to deal from). This boy was known to CAMHS previously when in primary school and was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder three years ago as a result of their assessments then. Following the PEx and since joining us he's been exhibiting destructive and violent behaviours in and out of school, but there's proof of these behaviours all through years 7, 8 and the term of year 9 he spend in mainstream secondary; none of this is new. CAMHS told me he would be waiting approx. 4-6 months for an initial assessment now that I've referred him to them, and then approx. 9-14 months to see a practitioner to diagnose/decide on treatment. So, about 18months, by which time he will either be in or nearly in year 11 and 16 years old... when his behaviours will have almost certainly progressed into further criminality and/or he will be harming himself one way or another (probably via a drug habit of some kind tbh considering what he's grown up around). As I say, not the worst case I've even dealt with since we came back from the Christmas holidays, but this afternoon so it's fresh in my mind. And the fact that he's been PExed for carrying a weapon (a miniature zombie knife, so something he acquired especially from somewhere rather than just pulled out of the knife block in the kitchen) has triggered nothing from any agencies apart from a "knife awareness course" from our school police officer that lasted an afternoon.
God forbid he graduates onto further weapons and actually does something with the next one, but if he were to everyone would be saying "what went wrong?" like it's remarkable, when the fact is that this neglect on the part of the state is happening day in, day out with so many of our young people. Okay, you have to be a psychopath to do what Rudakubana did, but at a population level there are a fair few psychopaths and if their behaviours are challenged and they aren't helped when they're school age, some of them will go on to commit terrible crimes like the Southport murders.
Keir Starmer is right to order an enquiry and making knives harder to buy for young people is an important step, but an urgent review of agencies such as CAMHS and Prevent and a cash injection for staff, resources and intervention is the most important part of this puzzle. And it can't wait, it needs to happen now.