Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced the government will hold a public inquiry, to determine how Axel Rudakubana was able to conduct the murder of three girls despite being known to a range of state agencies.
Rudakubana, now 18, earlier plead guilty to a range of offences including the murders of Bebe King, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe.
In a statement, Yvette Cooper said: “The families and the people of Southport need answers about what happened leading up to this attack.
“The perpetrator was in contact with a range of different state agencies throughout his teenage years. He was referred three times to the Prevent programme between December 2019 and April 2021 aged 13 and 14.
“He also had contact with the police, the courts, the Youth Justice system, social services and mental health services. Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed.”
“We also need more independent answers on both Prevent and all the other agencies that came into contact with this extremely violent teenager as well as answers on how he came to be so dangerous, including through a public inquiry that can get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “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.”