Why Keir Starmer didn't reveal 'terror' details of Southport attack

The prime minister has addressed the nation after the government announced an inquiry into state failings to prevent the Southport attack.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 21: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at the Downing Street Briefing Room following the guilty plea of the Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana, on January 21, 2025 in London, England. Teenager Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty Monday to the
Prime minister Keir Starmer addresses the nation on an inquiry into the Southport attack. (Getty Images)

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he could not reveal details about the Southport attack after it happened as he addressed details of what he knew when about the murders.

In an address to the nation on Tuesday, the prime minister also said a public inquiry into how the state failed to prevent the tragedy on Merseyside may lead to a change in the law that dealt with a new threat of terrorism from “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms".

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July, was referred three times to anti-extremism programme Prevent amid concerns over his fixation with violence.

But despite this and contact with other state agencies, the authorities failed to stop the attack, which claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.

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As well as the three murders, Rudakubana admitted 10 counts of attempted murder, possession of a knife, production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit acts of terrorism. He will be sentenced on Thursday.

Starmer was pressed repeatedly about what he knew when amid suggestions that a vacuum of official updates can lead to that void being filled with false information online.

The Southport attack, and misinformation online about the attacker's identity, fuelled a wave of rioting across the country, with mosques and hotels used for asylum seekers among the locations targeted, resulting in substantial jail sentences for some offenders.

But Starmer said he was unable to reveal information about Rudakubana's case around the time of the attack as it may have led to a collapse in any subsequent trial. He also laid the blame for the riots squarely on those perpetrating the violence.

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He said: "If this trial had collapsed because I or anyone else had revealed crucial details while police were investigating, while the case was being built, while we were awaiting a verdict, then the vile individual who committed these crimes would have walked away a free man.

AXEL RUDAKUBANA PLEADS GUILTY TO ALL 16 CHARGES (CUSTODY IMAGE INCLUDED Axel Rudakubana, aged 18, from Banks in Lancashire has today (Monday 20 January 2025) pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to all 16 counts he was charged with., , They were three charges of murder; 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife - all relating to the incident at Hart Street, Southport on 29 July 2024., , He was additionally charged on 29 October with production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974; and possessing information, namely a pdf file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000., , Following his guilty plea, Rudakubana was remanded in custody to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday 23 January. The hearing is due to start at 11am.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. (PA)

“I would never do that and nobody would ever forgive me if I had. That is why the law of this country forbade me or anyone else from disclosing details sooner.

He confirmed he knew the details as they were emerging, adding: "But you know, and I know, that it would not have been right to disclose those details.

"The only losers, if the details have been disclosed, would be the victims and the families, because it ran the risk the trial would collapse. I’m never going to do that.”

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, Jan. 21, 2025, following the guilty plea of the Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana. (Henry Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)
Prime minister Keir Starmer during a press conference at Downing Street about the Southport attack. (AP)

On Tuesday, home secretary Yvette Cooper later told the House of Commons: "The government has been constrained in what we could say up to this point about Rudakabana’s past to avoid prejudicing any jury trial in line with all the normal rules of our British justice systems because nothing was more important than securing justice.

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“Social media puts those long-established rules under strain, especially when partial or inaccurate information appears online, and the Law Commission is reviewing the contempt of court rules in that light."

Cooper was challenged by shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who argued further information about Rudakubana could have been made public without prejudicing the court.

He said: “On 29 October, Rudakubana was charged with possessing the ricin and the terror manual, that was then made public. So, if it can be made public in October, without risking prejudice of the murder trial, it follows that it could have been made public in August, without prejudicing that same trial."

But Cooper said: “Let me point out to him that the previous Conservative government did not publish information before the trial about the Prevent referral for the perpetrator who killed [Tory MP] Sir David Amess. None of us criticised them for that, because none of us wanted to put at risk justice for Sir David’s family."

In October, the prime minister, the home secretary and prosecutors warned against public commentary or reporting that could prejudice the Southport case.

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According to the government, contempt of court occurs when an individual risks unfairly influencing a court case which may prevent a defendant from getting a fair trial and can affect the outcome of a trial.

Contempt of court can include breaking a court order or commenting publicly on a case, such as through social media or in an online news article.

A person can be in contempt of court if they say whether they think someone is innocent or guilty; if they refer to someone's previous convictions; if they name someone the judge has allowed to remain anonymous; if they name victims, witnesses and offenders under the age of 18 or if they share any evidence or facts a judge has said cannot be made public.

Anyone found guilty of contempt of court could be sentenced to up to two years in prison.

Starmer said the sharing of information online that does not appear to be following contempt of court rules “needs to be addressed” and will be looked at by the government.

He said: “It is true that we live in a different age, in that available information is now available online as well as offline, and I understand the frustration of all, including some journalists, who observe the rules and don’t report what they know because they know that the law doesn’t permit it, and it runs the risk of collapsing a trial, only to see information online that doesn’t appear to be following the same rules, and that is not acceptable.

“That has to be addressed and will be part of what we will be looking at because that can’t be right."

From left to right: Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, werer killed in the Southport attack. (PA)
From left to right: Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, werer killed in the Southport attack. (PA)

Starmer said the UK faces a new kind of terrorism threat following the Southport attack, and that new laws could be required to address it.

"Britain now faces a new threat. Terrorism has changed," he said.

“The predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent – groups like al-Qaeda.

“That threat, of course, remains but now alongside that we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom accessing all manner of material online – desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake.”

He added: “If the law needs to change to recognise this new and dangerous threat, then we will change it and quickly, and we will also review our entire counter-extremist system to make sure we have what we need to defeat it.”

On Monday, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls, as well as 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a kitchen knife.

He also admitted to producing a biological toxin, ricin, and the possession of an al-Qaeda training manual - a terror offence.

Following his guilty plea on Monday, it has emerged that Rudakubana was referred to the government's anti-extremism Prevent programme three times between 2019 and 2021 because of his obsession with violence.

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Southport stabbings suspect Axel Rudakubana, 18, appearing on the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court, where he has pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Rudakubana has also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children and to the attempted murder of Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes in Southport, Merseyside on July 29, 2024. Picture date: Monday January 20, 2025.
A court artist sketch of Axel Rudakubana, centre, at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday. (PA)

It has also emerged that Rudakubana was stopped by his father from returning to his former school a week before he murdered the three girls, PA Media reported. He was said to be wearing the same outfit, a green hooded sweatshirt and a surgical mask, that he wore before carrying out the Southport attack.

It was reported that Rudakubana was excluded from the secondary school over claims he was carrying a knife and later returned to attack someone with a hockey stick. It is understood he was excluded in October 2019 after telling Childline that he was being racially bullied and was bringing a knife into school to protect himself.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper gives a statement in the House of Commons, London, on the inquiry that is being set up following the Southport murders. Picture date: Tuesday January 21, 2025.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper gives a statement in the House of Commons about an inquiry into the Southport murders. (PA)

Home secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons on Tuesday that Rudakubana was referred three times to Prevent between December 2019 and April 2021 when he was aged 13 and 14.

The referrals took place following evidence he had expressed interest in school shootings, the London Bridge attack, the IRA, MI5 and the Middle East.

She said Lancashire Police responded to five calls at his home address between October 2019 and May 2022 about his behaviour.

Rudakubana was convicted of a violent assault against another child at school, Cooper revealed.

Cooper said Rudakubana admitted to having carried a knife more than 10 times and said he was "easily able to order a knife on Amazon" despite being 17 and having been convicted for violence, something she called a "total disgrace".

Cooper said 162 people were referred to Prevent last year for concerns relating to school massacres.

She said: “There has been a threefold increase in under-18s investigated for involvement in terrorism in just three years."

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