Axel Rudakubana wove a web of deceit, spinning countless lies to mislead police, healthcare professionals, and social services prior to the horrific Southport attack. His manipulation was calculated and relentless.
Before committing the harrowing triple child murder, Rudakubana managed to deceive authorities on no fewer than 26 occasions. In a chilling act of violence, he took the lives of Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged 7, Bebe King, 6, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in 2024.
Originating from Lancashire, the 19-year-old Rudakubana attempted to expand his list of victims, targeting eight additional children, their dance instructor Leanne Lucas, and business mogul John Hayes in a savage stabbing spree.
Rudakubana’s penchant for lying traces back to when he was just 13. After a violent incident involving a hockey stick at school, he tried to manipulate social worker Anna Jameson, as originally reported by The Sun on Sunday.
His deceitful antics continued in 2022 when, caught carrying a knife on a bus, he concocted a story for the police. He claimed he wanted to be apprehended so they would confiscate his phone and erase several embarrassing TikTok videos, a ploy revealing the depth of his manipulations.
He later told officers that a doctor had told him the easiest way to get his phone seized was by committing a serious crime.
Rudakubana was also caught looking at US school shootings on a class computer, but he lied to Prevent officers and social care staff by saying he had clicked on a Yahoo news link.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy told The Sun on Sunday that ‘these incidents show a vile man who has repeatedly lied, manipulated and tried to hide the truth’.
Axel Rudakubana was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 52 years, at Liverpool Crown Court in January last year
(L-R) Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were all murdered in the atrocity on July 29, 2024
Rudakubana was jailed for life in January 2025 and ordered to serve a minimum of 52 years.
In addition to the murders and attempted murders, he was convicted of producing the biological toxin ricin and possessing an al-Qaida training manual, an offence under the Terrorism Act.
But this week, Rudakubana was accused of trying to ‘manipulate the system’ after he was moved to Broadmoor from Belmarsh prison after it was decided that he could not be managed safely in a prison environment.
Mr Timothy says the revelation of the number of lies he had told since his early teens ‘proves Rudakubana would say anything in pursuit of a transfer to a more comfortable facility’.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Broadmoor has a much softer regime than Belmarsh.
‘Although it is secure, it is not a prison. He did not plead mental health issues at his trial, yet now claims to have them.’
Despite the transfer, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) insisted the 19-year-old will remain behind locked doors for the rest of his custodial sentence and is ‘unlikely to ever be released’.
Lawyer Chris Walker, of Bond Turner, who is representing the Southport families, said: ‘The three families we represent have been made aware of this development in the last 48 hours and it is safe to say that whilst this news would devastate them at any time, the fact that this has occurred as we approach the second anniversary in our view is another move by AR who would appear to be attempting, once again, to manipulate the system.
‘We have been given the barest of details and whilst we are supporting the families through this we are urgently seeking a meeting with the appropriate authorities to understand the situation before commenting further.’
Mark Fairhurst, chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said Rudakubana had ‘played the system’ by securing a move to Broadmoor.
‘This vile offender has played the system and will now enjoy the freedoms that are afforded mentally unwell patients in secure psychiatric hospitals, including benefits that law abiding tax payers will fund,’ he said.
‘My members will be placed at risk without the protections afforded to staff in prisons because he is now classed as a patient. He should spend his entire sentence in a prison in solitary confinement.
‘My thoughts are with the families of the victims and all those affected by his heinous crimes.’
Emma Webber, whose son Barnaby was one of three people killed by mentally ill Valdo Calocane in the 2023 Nottingham stabbings, told the Mail: ‘Once again the system bends over backwards for a child-killer who has already shown he will attack prison staff.
‘Axel Rudakubana has manipulated his way into a secure hospital, and the statements from the victims’ families and the Prison Officers Association leave no room for doubt: this is an insult to the dead and a betrayal of the living.’
Many will question why Rudakubana is being sent to Broadmoor despite having been deemed fit to stand trial in January 2025.
The move will also significantly increase the cost to taxpayers.
A place in a high-security psychiatric hospital costs more than £300,000 a year, compared with around £60,000 to keep an inmate in prison.
Sally Jameson, Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office, insisted Rudakubana would be returned back to prison ‘as soon as possible’.
‘It’s not right, and I sincerely hope that he won’t be qualifying for benefits,’ she told Nick Ferrari on LBC.
‘But what I think is important to note is he will not get time off his sentence, and he will be returned to jail as soon as possible. And also, the high security hospitals, they’re not like ordinary hospitals.
‘They are a prison hospital. He will be kept under very stringent conditions befitting actually to his crime, but also the level of security that needs to be put around him.
‘And I am absolutely confident that he will be returned to prison as soon as possible and serve out his sentence, and I agree that should be under the most punitive and solitary conditions that is possible.’
People held in secure psychiatric hospitals are treated as patients rather than prisoners, although they remain detained under strict security measures.
However, the MOJ stressed that Broadmoor should not be viewed as a softer option.
A spokesman said: ‘The families of those murdered and injured in Southport will be in this country’s heart forever and our thoughts remain with them.
‘The offender who carried out these vile crimes will rightly spend the entirety of his 52-year custodial sentence locked up, and is unlikely to ever be released.
‘High secure hospitals are not places of freedom. He will remain under constant supervision in a high-security psychiatric unit, and be returned to prison as soon as possible.
‘The transfer of an offender follows a robust independent clinical assessment.’
Rudakubana attacked a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh in May 2025, triggering an internal investigation.
His supervision was reportedly downgraded just before he used the kettle in his cell to boil water which he then launched over the officer.
Details disclosed after the killings revealed Rudakubana had an extensive history of contact with mental health services.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust confirmed he was under its care between 2019 and 2023 before he ‘stopped engaging’.
He had first been referred after taking a knife to school and later admitting he had done so ‘to use it’.
Rudakubana was also referred to the Government’s Prevent counter-extremism programme after researching school massacres on a computer while attending his next school, The Acorns.
Two further referrals followed, although none resulted in intervention because investigators concluded there was no clear ideological motivation behind his fixation with extreme violence.
