Knives, Al-Qaeda manual, poison ricin: How Southport child killer was ‘obsessed’ with violence

Shocking details have emerged about Axel Rudakubana, the 18-year-old teenager who stabbed to death three young girls and injured 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town of Southport, England last summer. Weapons, texts and equipment recovered at his house draw a pattern of his “obsession” with violence.

Rudakubana, who was sentenced to 52 years in prison on Thursday (January 23), is believed to have researched car bombs, detonators and nitric acid online. Police also found a machete, crossbow, arrows, and several combat knives at his home.

Let’s take a closer look.

Axel Rudakubana’s ‘obsession’ with violence

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana purchased knives from Amazon, including the one he used to kill the three children — Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; Bebe King, six; and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven — last July.

The police discovered multiple weapons at his house, including knives, machetes and arrows. Rudakubana was arrested minutes after he unleashed the horrific attack at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class in The Hart Space, Merseyside, on July 29, 2024.

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As per The Sun report, he bought the knives when he was 17, a fortnight before the attack. The teenager also tried to buy a £1.70, 20cm-long kitchen knife twice, a month before the killings last year.

The United Kingdom (UK) newspaper reported that Rudakubana was able to easily purchase knives online despite a history of violence.

He was expelled from secondary school in 2019 over accusations of carrying a knife. He later returned to attack someone with a hockey stick, reported Independent.

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Police also came across a Tupperware container with an unknown substance under his bed, which was later found to be homemade poison ricin.

Ricin, a plant toxin, is extracted from the beans of the castor oil plant. It is highly toxic and even a small amount can be fatal if inhaled, injected or ingested, as per Independent.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer told Liverpool Crown Court that 150 castor beans that could have made between 1.07 and 5.33 grammes of ricin, deadly enough to kill 12,500 people if inhaled, were recovered at the scene.

“The castor beans could have been used to create about 2,500 to 12,500 doses if inhaled but to do that he’d have to carry out a further purification process and there’s no evidence he did,” Heer was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

Rudakubana bought equipment to make ricin on Amazon in 2022, The Sun reported.

“There is no antidote (for ricin poisoning) and only a very small amount of it may be deadly,” the prosecutor said. “There is no evidence that the ricin produced was ever used either during this attack or at any other time.”

A conical flask, a pair of goggles, and a pestle and mortar still containing the remnants of castor beans were also found at his house, just three-five miles (roughly 5-8 km) away from Hart Space, where he killed the girls.

Toxicologists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire determined that the castor beans “had been used to make a crude preparation of ricin in sufficient quantities to be lethal, but he could not be sure that the further final purification process had taken place to produce ricin in liquid or powder form,” Heer said, as per the Daily Mail report.

Texts on genocide & more

Searches of the Southport killer’s devices have revealed an unsettling fascination with violence and a range of conflicts.

He possessed texts on the genocide in Rwanda, where his parents are from. The teenager also had written documents on Nazi Germany, clan cleansing in Somalia, an uprising in Kenya and a treatise on the Chechnya combat, reported Independent.

Police also found a PDF file titled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants, the al-Qaeda Training Manual, which led to Rudakubana being charged with a terror offence.

As per The Times, he was also found to have researched “electronic detonators” and “strong nitric acid”.

The killer was first referred to the UK government’s counterterrorism Prevent programme in 2019 when he was just 13 years old over concerns about his fascination with a school massacre.

Prosecutor Heer told the court Rudakubana had “a longstanding obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”

“His only purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as per Associated Press (AP).

According to Heer, when the killer was taken to a police station, he purportedly said: “It’s a good thing those children are dead, I’m so glad, I’m so happy.”

Axel Rudakubana sentenced

After denying the murder, Rudakubana was to stand trial on Monday. However, he surprisingly pleaded guilty to 16 offences, including three counts of murder, ten of attempted murder, making the poison ricin and possession of a document containing al-Qaeda training material.

On Thursday, Liverpool Crown Court judge Justice Goose sentenced Rudakubana to at least 52 years in prison.

He avoided a whole life sentence as the killer was under 18 when he committed the crime. The judge said the teenager would not be eligible to apply for parole for 52 years, by which time he will be 70, reported The Telegraph.

The sentencing has led to calls for a change in law, with even Tory leader Kemi Badenoch supporting such a move so that judges have more freedom when sentencing young people convicted of the most heinous crimes.

Speaking after the sentencing, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve.”

With inputs from agencies