Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

There were a "striking" number of missed opportunities to prevent 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana from killing three young girls and injuring 10 other people in 2024, a national inquiry has concluded today.

Laid out in around 800 pages are the "major areas of systemic failure" uncovered by inquiry chair Sir Adrian Fulford. They include a lack of oversight of the killer's online behaviour, "significant" failures by his parents, and the absence of responsibility taken by any one agency for "assessing and managing the grave risk" he posed.

From police forces to the county council, many of the organisations named in the report have apologised, while the prime minister has promised "fundamental changes" in light of its "harrowing" conclusions.

This was only the first phase of the inquiry. It's second part is looking at how people fixated with extreme violence are identified and managed - with another report to be delivered in Spring 2027.

The killings of Alice, Elsie and Bebe at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop were "not only predictable, they were preventable", the lawyer representing their families said earlier. He added that he hoped the report's release "marks a genuine turning point".

• We are ending our live coverage now, but you can read more in our full piece here.

At the end of his report,, external which spans two volumes, the chair of the Southport Inquiry, Sir Adrian Fulford, outlines his recommendations.

It's a long list, made up of 67 recommendations in total that cover 10 themes:

• Fundamental problems: Such as what agencies and organisations have which responsibilities
• The attack:What guidance and changes could be issued to people and organisations involved on the day of the attack
• Weapons and poisons: The ease with which various weapons can be purchased, particularly online or by children
• Online harms: Looking at changes to how harmful content is accessed online
• Policing:Specific feedback for the local police forces involved
• Prevent and Counter Terrorism Policing: Suggestions about how the government's counter-terrorism Prevent programme could function better
• Social Care: Improvements for social care bodies, including the county council
• AR's [Rudakubana's] healthcare:What agencies directly involved in the killer's healthcare up to the attack should have done
• Education:Looking at the actions of his schools, as well as how other organisations worked with them
• AR'S family: What the killer's family should have done, and what other support could have been in place for them

As we've been reporting, the question of whether charges would be brought against the teenage killer's parents had been raised again in November, when Merseyside Police said it was reviewing its original decision not to refer them to the Crown Prosecution Service.

In an update, the force now says that it won't be bringing charges against them.

"There is no current legal duty on bystanders and/or parents to warn or report criminality," says a spokesperson for Merseyside Police, which notes this is something flagged in the inquiry's report.

After an "extensive investigation" and after analysing information provided to the inquiry, the force has concluded "there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction", it says.

"The criminal investigation has therefore concluded and no charges will be brought."

Image source, House of Commons

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp speaks in response, pointing to evidence given to the inquiry by a former headteacher of the killer.

He says she told the inquiry she was pressured by mental health services to "minimise the danger posed by Radukabana because of his ethnicity" - which Philp says contributed to "clear risks" being missed.

He then raises the disorder that occurred in the UK following the attack, and says the failure to provide information in the early days after the attack gave room to "untrue speculation online... which fuelled the riots".

Philp asks if the home secretary will commit to making sure information is released in the future to avoid such situations.

Mahmood says "the only factors that should be taken into account are the potential risk posed by an individual" and, addressing the disorder, says there has already been a change in the media protocol so information can be released at the earliest possible opportunity.

The inquiry has identified "a wider issue", says Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood - which is the "rising numbers of young men who are fascinated by extreme violence" and whose minds have been "warped" by time spent in isolation online.

There is no "clear approach" under the Prevent programme for how to handle the risk posed by people who are not specifically vulnerable to terrorist ideology, Mahmood says - but the second part of the Southport Inquiry "will face directly into this challenge".

"The lesson is that the failures happened everywhere", the home secretary says.

"We must ensure we do not find ourselves here again grieving deaths that should never have happened had the state, and those who worked within it, acted differently."

Image source, House of Commons

Shabana Mahmood begins her statement by saying she won't name the attacker or go into the details of the attack, and says her thoughts are with those affected.

In honour of them, and the three girls who were killed, "we must now act to prevent similar attacks", she adds.

Mahmood says the findings are "unsparing" and, as she said earlier, highlights "systematic" failures across multiple public sector organisations.

"The failure, because it belonged to everyone, belonged to no-one," she adds.

She then lists off issues with the response to the attacker, including the referrals to the Prevent scheme, social care, and mental health services.

"All failed to identify the risk that the perpetrator posed," she adds.

Mahmood says "the horrific attack was itself evidence of the ease" of which it could take place.

The home secretary then highlights a number of ways she says the government has already acted since the attacks.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is standing in the House of Commons delivering a statement after the release of the Southport Inquiry report.

Earlier, she said the government will fully support the inquiry as it enters the next phase, and said the report shows a "systematic failure" of the state in preventing the attack.

You can watch live at the top of this page.

Image source, POOL

Chris Walker, from Bond Turner Law which is representing the families of the three killed girls, says their deaths were "not only predictable, they were preventable".

“On behalf of our clients we welcome the report’s clear - though deeply distressing - findings on the profound systemic failures and individual failures, that preceded this attack and the responsibility borne by [the killer]’s parents," he says.

Walker says reforms are "required urgently" and hope the release of the report "marks a genuine turning point".

“The public deserves systems capable of identifying escalating risk, protecting the vulnerable and preventing acts of mass violence. We, alongside our clients, will continue to push for that change until it is achieved.”

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool Town Hall

The question of whether the teen killer’s parents could be held criminally responsible for failing to report his alarming behaviour remains open.

Merseyside Police said in June 2025 the evidence against his father, Alphonse Rudakubana, and mother, Laetitia Muzayire, did not meet the threshold for a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service.

However in November, following the evidence given by his parents to the Southport Inquiry, the force said it was reviewing that decision.

After the report from the first phase of the inquiry was published earlier - which included heavy criticism of the pair - a spokesperson for the force says its review is ongoing and no decisions have been taken so far.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool Town Hall

One clear concern expressed by inquiry chair Sir Adrian Fulford was how a teenage boy was so easily able to amass a “small arsenal of weapons” by shopping online.

He noted that the online retail giant Amazon - one place the killer bought weapons, including the knife used in the attack, and archery equipment - took “no active steps” to enforce its own policy that under 18s can only use the company's services with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

The teen set up his own account in April 2019 using the fake name Daniel Rysen, and used a combination of his parents’ bank cards and later his own to buy weapons.

Sir Adrian noted with concern that during the inquiry John Boumphrey, vice president and country manager for Amazon UK and Ireland, accepted that there was no way for the company to tell how many children are the main users of accounts on the website.

The chair said it was “concerning” that someone with the killer’s “violence fixated mindset” was able to browse and then buy weapons without any age restriction.

At the time, an Amazon spokesperson said the company had "launched an urgent investigation in relation to this tragic case". The BBC has contacted Amazon for comment.

Image source, PA Media

In the aftermath of the report, it's "vital that we confront these failings openly and honestly", says Southport MP Patrick Hurley.

To ensure that "individuals who pose a risk do not fall through the gaps in the system", the report's recommendations must be treated with the "utmost seriousness", he says.

"Nothing can undo what has happened, but we must do everything in our power to reduce the risk of such a tragedy occurring again."

"It is with my deepest regret that Counter Terrorism Policing contributed to the collective failure" to manage the risk of the attacker, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans says.

Evans, who is also the senior national co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, adds that they have already acted upon urgent changes needed, but "there is still more to be done".

She praises the survivors for showing "strength and courage", condemning the "abhorrent attack".

She says they will review "every facet of the report" and respond to its recommendations for the Prevent programme.

"All those affected have rightly demanded answers and accountability, and I hope today’s report has gone some way to providing that. "

Image source, House of Commons

The prime minister is making a statement in Parliament on the Middle East, but before he embarks on that speech, he takes time to address the Southport inquiry.

Keir Starmer says he has a "total determination" to make changes from the report that are so "clearly necessary to honour the victims, the injured, and the families of Southport".

He says the report is "harrowing" and he cannot imagine the "pain upon pain" it will cause the families it affects.

His thoughts are with them today, he adds.

Earlier, he promised in a written statement that they will make "fundamental changes" to keep the public safe.

Nicola Brook, who is a lawyer representing the three adult survivors from the Southport attack, tells the BBC that the events of the attack were a "huge shock" to the adults, but the trauma continued afterwards.

They found it "very difficult" to handle online criticism in the wake of the attack, including speculation that they could have prevented the incident or done more in the aftermath, she explains.

Asked about how they are coping now, she says each take it on a "day-to-day basis" as nobody can "prepare you for this".

"Today will be a very difficult day for them," she says.

They received the report this morning, and she says overall they are "quite pleased with it", but it will take a few weeks to get through the detail.

"We think the chair has come to the right conclusions."

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent

Having the circumstances of the attack, and the catalogue of errors which led to it laid out over nearly 800 pages is sobering.

It will take time for those directly affected to digest fully.

They might have known some of its detail before, but seeing it in its totality - with the big picture spelled out so forcefully – will be very hard to take in.

However, all of the parents and survivors were very clear that they didn’t want the inquiry to pull any punches.

Many of them came to give their own evidence. I remember the atmosphere in the room when they spoke, often through tears, laying bare their trauma.

Theirs were visceral, emotive, impactful accounts – and the inquiry chair Sir Adrian Fulford listened to all of them with rapt attention.

Several parents said that they were only prepared to testify because of the inquiry’s remit to make recommendations and change.

So for those families, the real test of the inquiry's success won’t come with today’s report, or even with the announcement of the next phase of hearings.

It will be over the weeks and months ahead when the people and agencies which have been criticised can demonstrably show that they have made the improvements and changes which the report demands.

Judith Moritz
Special correspondent

To an extent this report is telling the families affected by the attack what they already knew - that this was an unspeakable tragedy which could and should have been prevented, and which was the result of multiple failings by multiple people and multiple agencies. They didn’t need a report to get them that far.

But that doesn’t detract from the importance of today.

Southport is a small community – where parents bringing their kids up by the seaside know each other well.

In the aftermath of the attack word quickly spread that the tragedy was the result of a teenager barely out of childhood himself, wreaking the worst imaginable violence on other children.

When the public inquiry got underway, the families of the deceased and surviving children, and the adult survivors, all listened to the evidence with mounting horror.

They didn’t hold back in their condemnation of the attacker’s parents after watching them testify.

So they have been bracing themselves for today – knowing that they were in for a very difficult read. So it has proven.

The chief constable of Lancashire Constabulary says she is "extremely sorry" for not judging the risk that the attacker posed to others.

When interacting with the killer and his family, Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett says that the force was "motivated by a genuine desire to help, and this has been reflected in the inquiry report".

But she says she accepts it missed an opportunity to arrest him for possessing a knife on a bus, adding “we did not adequately assess the risk he posed to others. I am extremely sorry for this".

The statement says that the force fully accepts all recommendations made to it, including improving information-sharing, training, record-keeping and risk assessment, while also raising "systemic issues for policing nationally to consider".

Image source, Pool

Nicola Ryan-Donnelly, who represents the 22 children injured in the attack, tells the media that "the findings of this inquiry are disturbing and frankly depressing".

"These calls for organisational and individual accountability must be heard. They must be acted upon."

The families of the survivors remain focused and committed to the recovery of their children, she adds. They want to create spaces where they can "process and come to terms with what happened to them by talking about what they went through".

"We move forward to Phase 2 with the hope and expectation that these recommendations will be actioned and that change will follow. That is the legacy our children deserve."

We're expecting to hear from Nicola Ryan-Donnelly shortly, who represents 22 of the children injured in the Southport attack.

She released a written statement earlier, but we will bring you any new lines here as she speaks. You can also watch live at the top of the page.

Image source, Pool

Security Minister Dan Jarvis says the government will "respond as quickly as we practically can" to the Southport Inquiry's report released today.

Speaking to broadcasters, he says "there are 67 recommendations and clearly we will want to take the time to look very carefully at all of the detailed recommendations that have been made".

He says the government has already taken action to "defend against this kind of attack", including changes to the Prevent anti-radicalisation scheme.

He would not be drawn on calls for the killer's parents to face criminal charges saying it was a "matter for the police". It comes after the inquiry chair today said they could have prevented the attack.

Jarvis adds that today is "a day to remember victims and survivors" of the attack.