Southport killer enabled by father

[crowsfeet57]

The evidence given by the school and the social worker highlighted how Axel Rudakubana's deteriorating behaviour was blamed on everyone else by his father. Now the father's own evidence is damning. surely this man should be charged as an accessory to the murders which he had many chances to prevent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c20e8qd5d53t

A great point about the machete, you even need verification for a pumpkin carving kit. Presumably a parent took it in?

So sorry for what you're going through with your son

Haven't read today's updates which sound even more troubling. But also noting- two kids with autism, possibly one or both parents might also be affected.

I think its difficult to say - he certainly is a factor of what happened but I do understand he was afraid of his son, had another disabled son and had a tough background himself. That said he didn’t help AR and should have tried harder to alert authorities and prevent some of his behaviour. Lots of missed opportunities certainly from various agencies and his parents.

He sounds like a traumatised man who was terrified both of his son and of losing his son

Exactly. We've seen plenty on here where parents have an out of control teen and have no idea where to turn because nobody wants to know.
Wasn't he reported to Prevent 3 times and nothing was done?
There are lots of agencies to blame for the inaction that led to this tragedy.
This government and previous ones want to hang their heads in shame for the lack of mental health care in this country i stead of bleating on about anxiety and deal with the deeper issues.

Well, for every Bible quote to make a point, there are others that contradict.

Lev 20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
KJV

And there is Duet 21:18- 21. The bit about taking a stubborn and rebellious son to the elders, then off to the city gate to be stoned.

Lots of violence in the bible, I am not sure the Bible would be the best book to use here. As an atheist, I sometimes wonder how much violence religion causes. This family were Christian, and I wonder if this inquiry will touch on what sort of Christianity. was practised. The hell fire and brimstone sort ?

But yes, I agree that not many people could report their child to the Police. I don't think I could.

This story is shocking but there are many children carrying knives, making threats and this is not dealt with in a firm enough way to stop them going on and killing people.

How many more young people will die at the hands of other young people before something is changed and we criminalise the knife carriers?

https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2025/june/officers-investigating-the-death-of-a-teenage-boy-in-north-manchester-yesterday-have-arrested-two-people-on-suspicion-of-murder/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d07x39gdxo

At the risk of sounding like a far right Mary Whitehouse, I think every parent should be legally responsible for the conduct of their under 18 unless they can prove beyond reasonable doubt that they fought for their children, engaged with CAMHS/Social Services/school to try and support them.

For that to work, CAMHS and other services would need to be far better resourced than they are currently. Where I live, only those in the top 2 tiers for CAMHS seem to get any input at all. The wait for the two lower tiers is now so long that any child older than around 10 or 11 at referral reaches adulthood without any meaningful input.

We don’t know all the facts.
There were massive mistakes made by the authorities and his parents.

It must have been absolute hell living with him, and they will live in hell for the rest of their lives.

This. He asked for help and was not listened to. I feel sorry for him. Imagine having to live with the guilt he must feel.

AR should have been assessed and given early intervention for his autism at primary school. I don’t believe that parents would have been in denial or argued that their child was being labelled.

It seems like parents were left to deal with the situation alone. Maybe CAMHS should pay more attention to parents of undiagnosed or late diagnosed DC. Their experiences of managing at home and their experience of advocating for their child. And trying to avoid ‘help’ that will make things worse. I can remember being on constant suicide watch and CAMHs telling me there was no help unless my autistic son was sectioned. And to avoid this at all costs.

This is a failure of provision of social care at a young age to autistic children and expecting parents to manage until the shit hits the fan and then placing vulnerable young autistic people in settings with those who will bully and exploit them. This policy has lead to suicide, murder of victims, attacks on ‘bullies’ and murder of innocents.

The father is not perfect and with hindsight could have done things differently. But he acted in a context. Unless we change the context nothing will change.

My friend's brother was schizophrenic and kept massive knives by his bedside, tucked out of sight in the corner. My friend showed them to me one day, I was gobsmacked. He never hurt anyone, although he always thought people were after him.

It never occurred to them to report it, they didn't think anyone could help. They knew he saw his GP from time to time but that's all the info they had on this treatment.

I also spent time in their house, even though I knew the knives were there. I assumed they were there for his protection.

Hindsight is wonderful, and I would do things differently and spend less time there, but my friend had to live there.

No he shouldn’t be charged. He prevented him setting the school on fire, but clearly was too afraid to report him to the police. I’m sure it he had been aware of the lengths he would go to he would have reported him. He should have reported him when he knew he was ordering knife’s and machetes and refused to have him home. But reporting your own DC is not as easy as people think and it’s clear his family were terrified of him. Prosecuting his father isn’t the right path to take imo.

Neither of which put the father into the frame so rather proving the point.

It would have been difficult for the police to do anything anyway in truth. How many times are actual crimes committed that the police don’t pursue due to lack of evidence. I was stalked by an ex for months, he assaulted me in broad daylight but the police didn’t pursue it because it was my word against his… If his Dad had approached the police at any stage and said “I think my son is going to do x and y”, would they have done anything substantial to stop him?

As others have mentioned, he was under the care of CAMHS so he was on their radar. It isn’t as though his dad just ignored the situation and hoped it would go away. Sad story but I don’t think it’s fair to blame his parents.

Proving what point ? I was responding to a post that quoted a bible verse, the verse being about not judging.

I have just seen the sky news report on the mum at the inquiry. She comes across as being very religious.

The Bible is very violent. I genuinely wonder how it affects some folk.

I think the blame sits with all the professionals who let him down. His father must have been at his wits end.

Have you ever tried to get services involved? I have. My teen had severe mental health challenges, also autistic, dropped out of education. GP referral led to an 18 month wait list for 'therapeutic support'. By the time that came round, they had taken an overdose and referred to CAMHS. 6 months waiting for an assessment, by which time they were self harming. 6 months on from that and still no CAMHS intervention.

Meanwhile, we had referrals to Early Help from me, school and GP. LA said they couldn't help. It took a mental health nurse to get involved and say there was violence towards me from my child and I was at risk of carer exhaustion before additional services were involved. 6 months from that and me begging for help, emailing all services in a shared email saying I couldn't cope and I was genuinely scared for my child's safety, my safety and that of others before a social work assessment was done.

Even now, the "involvement" is a visit every 3 weeks from the social worker and a phone number for CAMHS duty (Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm, leave a message and you might get a call back after a week).

At one point, my child had intrusive thoughts about harming others. I relayed this to CAMHS who relayed it to another agency involved in preventing violence. After two weeks, it came back as "low risk" but I should always accompany my 17yo when they left the house (ignoring the fact i had a job outside the home), hide the household knives and anything else sharp (i locked them in the car boot overnight but not exactly practical during the day) and call the police if my child threatened or hit me.

I was ACTIVELY trying to get help, from all services, on multiple occasions. It is not easy. There isn't someone on hand 24/7 to give advice. You feel incredibly isolated, like no-one is really listening to you or trying to help.

I can totally understand how his parents were acting to protect themselves and their other son, believing the risk to be within the family and that they were attempting to manage autistic behaviour that challenges with limited support (here, attend this parenting course FFS).

Point being the father shouldn't be prosecuted and half the people who say he should be would react with horror at a parent who did report their child to the police.
But none so blind as those that will not see.

@atmywitsend1989 @DropZoneOne I’m so sorry for all you are going through.

I had a really difficult primary aged child who I felt I couldn’t control, despite loads of reading books, trying methods etc.

Fortunately we were able to turn things around and at secondary age the meltdowns and rages stopped. However, while I remember the helplessness and the fear both for the future and for what would happen that day.

I had another who started to secrete knives in his room, and who had thrown furniture around and climbed onto the roof through a bathroom window.

The fear when you realised that he had ‘found something else’ that I hadn’t secured yet, and knowing there would always be yet another ‘something else’.

I have an inkling of what you are going through.

This is also a rebuke to those who always insist any criminality in boys can be prevented by “present fathers”.

His father was in the house and was spectacularly useless. It seems like Rudakubana underwent a dramatic change in personality and demenour from quiet choir boy to a deranged obsessed with violence teen and his parents seem to not have done much about it.

I mean:

”His son had not left the house between since March 2022 - the last time he did so had been to "stab someone", counsel for the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, says.
In a statement, Mr Rudakubana previously said his son had told him after he had prevented the taxi journey: "Next time if you stop me, there will be consequences."
When asked if he believed his son was thinking about launching another attack, Mr Rudakubana replied: "Not necessarily.
"I didn't see it that way that the next time he stepped out of the house he would be going to attack people.
"We took it [the 2022 attack] as a one-off episode.
"The things he was saying [were] not making any sense. We thought he had a mental breakdown."

You thought your (minor) son had a breakdown and you did nothing? I get it with adults - it’s harder to force an intervention on them when they don’t want it but this was a minor? Parents have a lot more sway.

Oh wow! I am so sorry to hear of this experience. It’s awful.

Agreed.

Many here wear their willing to accept/commit crimes for their child as a badge of honour.

@PrizedPickledPopcorn oh yes, that feeling of helplessness on realising that virtually anything in my home could be used as a weapon - broken crockery, mirrors, a table lamp - it felt utterly pointless hiding scissors and razors.

We're in a better place now - 3 months of privately funded CBT with an amazing woman who was prepared to take us on really helped turn things around. But it's a horrible position to be in, and it's all too easy to blame the parents when there is no handbook in these situations.