UK Taylor Swift dance party stabbing spree 'avoidable'

A UK teenager's 2024 frenzied stabbing spree in northwest England which killed three young girls and sparked nationwide anti-immigration riots was "foreseeable and avoidable," a public inquiry concluded on Monday.

The attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, which seriously wounded 10 others, including eight children, could have been prevented if the killer's parents and various agencies had acted sooner over his "escalating behaviour," it found.

Axel Rudakubana was jailed last year for a minimum of 52 years for the July 2024 attack, which triggered a wave of shock and revulsion in the UK as well as the worst mass disorder seen on the streets in decades.

Taylor Swift fans Alice Da Silva Aguiar, aged nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed in the attack.

Viral misinformation that Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker contributed to a week of anti-immigration riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities.

The public inquiry, led by retired judge Adrian Fulford and which last year held nine weeks of hearings, identified failures by Rudakubana's parents and agencies including in health, education and the police.

Chair Sir Adrian Fulford sits inside the hearing room at Liverpool Town Hall ahead of the publication of findings of the inquiry. AP

The teenager's parents were at fault for not reporting his behaviour and other issues to authorities, while the public bodies failed to manage the risk he represented, according to its 776-page report.

It was "highly likely" the attack would not have occurred had they acted.

"History simply would have taken a different course," Fulford said as he published the report, which made 67 recommendations.

'HARROWING'

The probe found five major areas of "systemic failure," including that Rudakubana's worsening conduct was "wrongly attributed to his autism spectrum disorder."

That led to "inaction and a failure to address dangerous behaviours," the report concluded.

Meanwhile, there was a lack of oversight of his online activity, which would have "provided the clearest indications of his violent preoccupations," it found.

The report also criticised his parents for, among other things, permitting knives and weapons to be delivered to the home and failing to report crucial information in the days leading up to the attack.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the report "truly harrowing and profoundly disturbing" and said he was "determined to make the fundamental changes needed to keep the public safe."

Solicitor Nicola Ryan-Donnelly, whose firm Fletchers represents 22 of the children affected by the attack, urged individuals and agencies to "take action now."

Agence France-Presse