The family of the Southport attacker have been moved to a “secret location” by police for their own protection, leaders at the church his father attended say.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, yesterday pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder for fatally stabbing Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and injuring 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on 29 July last year.
Leaders of The Community Church in Southport, where Rudakubana’s father Alphonse was a “valued part” of the congregation, released a statement addressing previous speculation about him after his son’s plea.
In it, they describe the family as “devastated” and claim “they have been moved by the police, for their protection, from their home in Banks [Lancashire] to a secret location that we are unaware of”.
Image: Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King.
Pic: Merseyside Police
Image: Police and forensic investigators at the scene of the Southport attack on 29 July 2024. Pic: PA
In the aftermath of the stabbings in Southport last summer, disinformation around Rudakubana’s identity falsely claimed he was Muslim and an asylum seeker.
Addressing speculation after his guilty plea lifted reporting restrictions, church leaders Dave Gregg, Geoff Grice, Harry Pickett, and Mike Rothwell said: “Axel was born and went to school in the United Kingdom, he has autism and has struggled with mental health issues.
“Prior to the major incident in Southport, he had been living with his parents in the village of Banks near Southport.
Image: Rioting broke out in Southport after the fatal stabbing of three girls. Pic: PA
“There has been the inevitable speculation about his family and background – with his father Alphonse being named in the national press. It has also been reported that his parents are both Christians and attend a local church.
“To prevent unnecessary intrusion into other churches in our town, we can confirm that over the last few years, Alphonse Rudakubana has been a valued part of The Community Church family.”
They added that Mr Rudakubana’s son and family “never attended our Sunday gatherings, nor played any active part in church life”.
The statement concluded by describing the deaths of the three young girls as a “tragedy”.
It added: “The subsequent outpouring of love and support by the local community actually reflects the true nature and spirit of our town, but sadly, this was eclipsed by the appalling attack – fuelled by fake racially motivated news on social media – on the local mosque, which resulted in so many awful injuries to police and damage being caused to buildings and property.”
Image: Axel Rudakubana
Attacker’s history of violence
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that the UK faced a “new threat” of attackers such as Rudakubana, who he described as “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 seeming only for its own sake”.
He appointed a new independent commissioner for the UK’s anti-extremism scheme Prevent.
After his guilty plea, it emerged Rudakubana was referred to the Prevent scheme three times in the 17 months before the attack over concerns about his fixation with violence – but he was eventually deemed not to require any intervention.
The teenager, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, was expelled from the school in 2019 over claims he was carrying a knife after telling Childline he was being racially bullied and brought the knife to protect himself.
It is understood that, after his exclusion, he returned to the school to target a former bully or someone he had a grievance with and assaulted someone with a hockey stick.
Rudakubana then attended two specialist schools, where teachers were concerned about his behaviour.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
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Moment police arrest rapist student
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.
Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment.
A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.
But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.
The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.
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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.
Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.
The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.
“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.
“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”
Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.
It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.
“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”
The review will mean:
• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion
• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves
• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth
Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.
“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”
However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.