A public inquiry will be held into the Southport tragedy, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced today.
It comes after Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty earlier to murdering three children aged 6, 7 and 9 at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29th July last year.
Yvette Cooper said their families “needed answers about what had happened leading up to the attack”.
She said Rudakubana had been referred to the Prevent programme three times between December 2019 and May 2021 when he was aged 13 and 14, as well as having contact with the police, the courts and social services.
“Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed,” she said.
She added that the case came “against a backdrop over a series of years in which growing numbers of teenagers have been referred to Prevent, investigated by counter-terror police, or referred to other agencies amid concerns around serious violence and extremism.
“We need to face up to why this has been happening and what needs to change.”
Cooper said the Crown Prosecution Service had been clear that information about Rudakubana’s past “could not be made public before today to avoid jeopardising the legal proceedings or prejudicing the possible jury trial, in line with the normal rules of the British justice systems”.
“Now that there has been a guilty plea, it is essential that the families and the people of Southport can get answers about how this terrible attack could take place and about why this happened to their children,” she said.
She added that during the summer, the Home Office had commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review into the three referrals concerning Rudakubana.
“We will publish further details this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent programme,” she said.
In a public statement, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Our thoughts are with the families of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar – and the families of everyone affected – who will be saved the ordeal of a protracted trial.
“The news that the vile and sick Southport killer will be convicted is welcome.
“It is also a moment of trauma for the nation and there are grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls.
“Britain will rightly demand answers. And we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit.
“At the centre of this horrific event, there is still a family and community grief that is raw; a pain that not even justice can ever truly heal.
“Although no words today can ever truly convey the depths of that pain, I want the families to know that our thoughts are with them and everyone in Southport affected by this barbaric crime. The whole nation grieves with them.”
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