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Europe|U.K. Counterterror Program Prematurely Closed Case on Teen Killer, Report Says
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/world/europe/rudakubana-program-report.html
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Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls in a stabbing spree last year, had been referred to Britain’s counterterror program, Prevent, three times before his attack last July.
Feb. 5, 2025, 11:27 a.m. ET
A British counterterrorism program prematurely closed the case of Axel Rudakubana, a teenager who killed three young girls in a stabbing attack last year, according to an official review published on Wednesday.
The review into the actions of the program, Prevent, which tries to divert vulnerable individuals from becoming terrorists, was commissioned by the government shortly after Mr. Rudakubana carried out a brutal rampage at a dance class in the northern English town of Southport on July 29.
Mr. Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, had been referred three times to Prevent, when he was 13 and 14, because of his fixation on violence. But on each occasion, it was found that he did not meet the threshold for further intervention under the program, in part because he had no known ideology.
The review said that the multiple referrals for Mr. Rudakubana over a 17-month period, combined with his “high levels of susceptibility,” “should have warranted increased scrutiny.”
In a statement to Parliament on Wednesday, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said that the review had found that there was “sufficient risk for the perpetrator to have been managed through Prevent.” He added: “It found that the referral was closed prematurely and there was sufficient concern to keep the case active while further information was collected.”
Mr. Rudakubana was sentenced to life in prison in late January after pleading guilty to three charges of murder, 10 charges of attempted murder and other charges.
