Rhianan Rudd: How mother’s boyfriend played ‘significant’ role in radicalising youngest UK girl to face terror charges
Rhianan Rudd, who took her own life at the age of 16, was the youngest girl in the UK to be charged with terrorist offences.
The inquest into her death, which concluded today, revealed shocking details about her radicalisation by two American white supremacists, one of whom was her mother’s boyfriend, who the coroner said “played a material role in her radicalisation”.
Rhianan gouged a swastika into her forehead, downloaded a bomb-making manual and told her mother she planned to blow up a synagogue.
Investigated by anti-terrorism police and MI5, charges against her were later dropped, but five month later on 19 May 2022, she was found dead in her shower in a children’s home in Nottinghamshire. Hours earlier she had posted on Instagram: “I’m delving into madness.”
The evidence heard in Chesterfield Coroner’s Court from police, social services and even an MI5 operative, raised questions over the state’s part in her death – and whether, despite her obvious radicalisation, this vulnerable, autistic girl should have been treated with more care by the authorities.
Judge Alexia Durran said: “I’m not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, Rhianan intended to take her own life. Rhianan’s death… was the result of a self-inflicted act but it is not possible to ascertain her intention.
“Rhianan was known, to family and professionals, to be vulnerable, to have autistic traits and have a history of self-harm.”
The coroner added: “I find she was highly affected by her arrest and was concerned about being sent to prison.”
It was not known what Rhianan was told by her legal team when the charges were dropped but this may have had a “psychological impact” on her, the coroner said.
Rhianan Rudd. Pic: Family handout
In an interview released at the verdict, Rhianan’s mother Emily Carter said her daughter “should never have been charged”, that she was failed by those investigating her, including MI5 and counter terrorism police, as well as being let down by mental health services and those caring for her at the home.
This was the most complex of cases, set at a time when our security services are seeing a growing number of children being arrested and charged for terrorist offences, while parents often seem oblivious to the radicalising material they are consuming online in their bedrooms.
Ms Durham’s ruling reflected this complexity, finding that while there were some failings the actions of the police and MI5 were “reasonable and proportionate”.
The coroner concluded today that she was satisfied that missed opportunities in her case were “not systemic”.
Judge Alexia Durran said: “In the circumstances I do not consider I should make a prevention of future deaths report.”
At the same she was unequivocal about the “significant” role played by two extremists in radicalising her.
It was her mother’s former boyfriend, an American she’d befriended though a US pen-pal prison scheme, who first introduced Rhianan to far-right ideology.
Dax Mallaburn had been part of a white supremacist prison gang in the US and subsequently came to the UK to live with Rhianan’s mother in September 2017, a year after she’d been to visit him in the US.
In the autumn of 2019, Rhianan alleged that he had touched her inappropriately but later withdrew the allegation and, after a social services assessment, Mr Mallaburn returned to the family home.
Ms Carter says: “In hindsight, he was a bad person but I never saw him talking Nazi stuff with her.”
Before Rhianan was arrested, Mr Mallaburn’s relationship with her mother had broken down and he returned to the US and then Mexico. However, during COVID, Rhianan appeared to contact another far-right extremist, Christopher Cook, and began an online relationship with him.
Cook, who was roughly 18 and living in Ohio, shared far-right texts with Rhianan along with a bomb-making manual, and during this time she became fixated with Adolf Hitler.
Emily Carter, the mother of Rhianan Rudd
Cook’s lawyer, Peter Scranton, says he too was radicalised online, and he came up with a plan to blow up power stations in the US, for which he was eventually arrested in August 2020, and in February 2022 he pleaded guilty to terrorism offences.
Cook, who was a misfit at school, suffering from “severe depression” according to his lawyer and was “essentially lashing out” as he tried to form a group to carry out his plan.
Mr Scranton told Sky News, “It was white nationalism, and they had this idea, and I don’t know why anyone would feel this way or how they thought it would work, that if they tore down the government and started over they could create a new United States of America that could look like the image that they would want – a white nationalist image.”
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Mr Scranton says Cook told him he didn’t radicalise Rhianan, and it was the former boyfriend, Dax Mallaburn, who’d initially got her into neo-Nazi ideology. However, the coroner found Cook was “a significant radicaliser of Rhianan” at a time when she was “isolated and unsupervised”.
Ms Carter says Rhianan was interested in German history because she was doing it at school and Cook was able to “pull her in”, to racial hatred and antisemitism. She says she didn’t know what was happening, despite having parental controls on Rhianan’s devices. She said: “I could hear her talking to people on there and I’d say who are you talking to and she’d say – just someone from school – and in fact I found out it wasn’t at all.
“When this person she was talking to disappeared, that’s when she sat down on my lap like a baby and cried. She told me this guy Chris had left her, and she was totally in love with him – then she came down and told me she had downloaded a bomb manual and I was like ‘Oh my god, what have you been doing’.”
Ms Carter decided to contact Prevent – a national program in the UK designed to stop individuals from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism
She says: “I thought putting her in a deradicalisation programme would be a fairly easy undo ‘brain pick’, But it wasn’t until the police turned up that I thought ‘hang on a minute this is a lot deeper than I actually thought it was at first’.”
Ms Carter and her lawyers have argued that the police were heavy-handed, that there should have been a psychological assessment before she was even questioned over terrorism offences.
“There were 19 police officers to arrest a 5ft 1, 14-year-old girl who weighs seven stone. It was over the top,” says Ms Carter.
Once Rhianan was charged, the deradicalisation work under Prevent was put on hold. Ms Carter thinks this was a mistake.
She says: “Leaving her with her own thoughts throughout the entire time of going through the police interviews and everything else – the deradicalisation would have changed the way she was seeing things – I believe she would have been able to handle it all so much better.”
The coroner described the police arrest and interview as “necessary and conducted appropriately” and that, while ceasing the Prevent intervention was an “unfortunate consequence” of the police investigation, it was “an appropriate step”.
During police interviews, Rhianan described being coerced and groomed, including sexually, and having sent explicit images of herself to Cook.
Lawyers representing the family say police and MI5 knew she was the victim of child sexual exploitation but failed to refer her to the relevant body – the National Referral Mechanism.
It was only after a social worker made the referral, that she was identified as a child victim and then the charges were dropped, by which time she had been subject to investigation and prosecution for 15 months.
The coroner agreed that there was a “systems failure” due to a lack of training both within the police and the Derbyshire council who both had had “significant information” that she was a potential victim of modern slavery.
However, she also said it “was impossible to know” whether this would have led to the CPS dropping their charges sooner, “nor that if had more than minimal impact on Rhianan’s death”.
Ms Carter says if she’d been treated differently “she’d be troubled, but I do think she’d still be alive”.
Rhianan’s family say the security services knew her vulnerabilities and that she had a tendency to self-harm, but they failed to take this into account.
Ms Carter said: “I admit my mistakes and I want the organisations to admit their mistakes. There were failings and they need to admit them.”
This ruling however found that the state did not play a role in Rhianan’s death under article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
For the most part, her vulnerabilities were known and taken into consideration. It does however show how extremists will exploit children with mental health problems, young people who are struggling with life who may be a danger to society, but also a risk to themselves.
Counter Terrorism Policing said it offered “sincere condolences to Rhianan’s family and loved ones for their terrible loss”.
Assistant Chief Constable Di Coulson, speaking on behalf of Counter Terrorism Policing in the East Midlands (CTPEM) and Derbyshire Constabulary, said: “This was a complex case involving a very vulnerable young person, who had been subjected to radicalisation.
“Rhianan’s tragic death was clearly devastating for her family. It was felt profoundly by the officers directly involved, but also across Counter Terrorism Policing as a whole.
“Rhianan’s case was a stark moment for our management of the growing numbers of children and young people in our casework – so often presenting vulnerability as well as risk and threat to the public.
“Since Rhianan’s death, we continue to work alongside our partners to evolve the way we approach cases involving children and, where feasible, attempt to rehabilitate and deradicalise, rather than investigate and convict.
“We welcome the findings of the Chief Coroner today, and while we have already made substantial improvements to the way we manage these cases, we will carefully review the findings and make any further changes in order to improve our protection of the public against terrorism.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
UK
Bournemouth: The seaside town ‘changed’ by immigration – where non-British-born population rose nearly 50%
The British seaside town of Bournemouth has a complex relationship with migration. It needs migrants to work in the tourist industry, which is vital for the economy.
Some residents say it’s always been a multicultural place, but others question if too many people coming here undermines the cultural identity of the town.
On Bournemouth seafront, we find that immigration is something that some white British people want to talk about – but not openly, and not on camera.
One woman, who knows the town well, said: “Bournemouth has changed because of the migration of people who have come here. The whole atmosphere of the place has changed.
One woman, who would only speak anonymously, said the ‘atmosphere of the town has changed’
“It’s strange to hear foreign languages spoken so frequently in our country. To not understand anything that’s being said around you is disconcerting,” she added.
I asked her if it made her uncomfortable, and if so, why? Is it the scale of migration which is bothering her?
“Visually, that seems to be the case,” she says. “We see what we see. I don’t see many white British people.”
I’m trying to get to the heart of what’s troubling her.
“It’s hard to define. I remember how it was. I remember the community. I’m worrying that our society as Brits is being undermined by the people who are coming in,” she says.
For decades, Britain has wrestled with the thorny issue of migration – who should be allowed into the country and from where.
The change in the demographic of the town is clear. Between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, the non-British-born population in Bournemouth’s local authority went up by 47%, and UK net migration has continued to rise significantly since then.
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Councils threaten revolt over asylum hotels
Bournemouth is a popular tourist destination
The town attracts tourists because of its long sandy beach
Post-Brexit changes
Nine years ago – just before Brexit – we visited Bournemouth’s Cumberland Hotel. Back then, the staff were mostly EU citizens – many from Eastern Europe.
Returning to the hotel, we speak to the manager, Sean Nell.
He said: “A lot of our workforce were EU nationals and after Brexit, a lot of them left – they found other work other than hospitality.
“A lot of our workforce we’re seeing now that we can recruit from is probably South Asia.”
Sean Nell, hotel manager in Bournemouth
One of the staff is barman Shardul Tomas, who came to the UK from India in 2022 on a student visa. Whilst studying for his master’s degree, he began working at the hotel.
“It’s good to come here and experience new culture and do what we wish to do in our fields….after Brexit, the Europeans were less, so we were able to get good jobs,” he said.
Shardul Tomas moved to the UK three years ago
‘We are replaced’
Nine years ago, Margaret Kubik was the assistant restaurant manager at the Cumberland.
We tracked her down and discovered she’s now working as a self-employed driving instructor.
She said: “When we met nine years ago, we as the Polish people were very much accused of taking the jobs from English people. Now we are replaced by the South Asian people.”
Margaret Kubik came to the UK in 2004 from Poland she now works as a driving instructor
‘It’s not England any more’
For some Bournemouth residents, hotels housing asylum seekers have almost become the focal point for wider concerns about migration – as is happening in other towns across the UK.
Visiting a protest outside an asylum hotel, we found people are less camera shy than the woman on the seafront – seemingly more comfortable talking about migration among a crowd of like-minded people.
The Britannia Hotel in Bournemouth is one site which has housed asylum seekers
In reference to asylum seekers, one protester, shaking her head, told us: “We don’t know who these people are. Who are they? It makes you feel like it’s not England any more.”
For a couple of hours, two angry groups face off over their differing views on immigration. But not everyone shares concerns about the impact of migration on the town.
Kevin Maidment was born in Bournemouth. I asked if he feels the fabric of the town has changed.
Kevin Maidment
Protesters ‘need somebody to hate’
He said: “No, because it’s always been a place where foreign language students visit.
“I think this lot down the road, they need somebody to hate… now it’s refugees, 10 years ago it was the Poles and the Eastern Europeans,” he said.
Watching the two groups with opposing views trying to drown each other out is a man called Colin. He lives in a flat between two asylum hotels, a few minutes walk apart.
Colin lives in a flat between two asylum hotels
“Personally, the immigrants aren’t a problem on the street or anything like that at all,” Colin says, referring to those seeking asylum.
“But people are fed up with the cost. The cost is a big problem because it’s so high.”
But with more councils vowing to launch legal challenges over the government’s use of asylum hotels, the immigration protest movement shows no sign of fizzling out.
Two Labour-run councils have said they are considering taking legal action to stop the use of hotels to house migrants in their areas after Epping council won a temporary injunction on Tuesday.
The leaders of Wirral and Tamworth councils both say they are considering their legal options in the wake of the Epping case, citing similar concerns about the impact of the hotels on their local communities.
Epping Forest District Council won an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at The Bell Hotel, after arguing its owners did not have planning permission to use it to house migrants.
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In a statement, Paula Basnett, the Labour leader of Wirral council, said: “Like many other local authorities, we have concerns about the Home Office’s practice of placing asylum seekers in hotels without consultation or regard to local planning requirements.
“We are actively considering all options available to us to ensure that any use of hotels or other premises in Wirral is lawful and does not ride roughshod over planning regulations or the wishes of our communities.
Police officers ahead of a demonstration outside The Bell Hotel. Pic: PA
“Wirral has always been proud of its record in supporting families and those fleeing conflict, but it is unacceptable for the government to impose unsuitable, short-term arrangements that disrupt communities and bypass local decision-making.
“If necessary, we will not hesitate to challenge such decisions in order to protect both residents and those seeking refuge.”
Carol Dean, the Labour leader of Tamworth Borough Council, said she understands the “strong feelings” of residents about the use of a local hotel to house asylum seekers, and that the council is “listening to their concerns and taking them seriously”.
She pointed out that under the national Labour government, the use of hotels has halved from 402 to 210, with the aim of stopping the use of any hotels by the end of this parliament.
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Migrant hotels a ‘failure of policy’
But she continued: “Following the temporary High Court injunction granted to Epping Forest District Council, we are closely monitoring developments and reviewing our legal position in light of this significant ruling.”
Cllr Dean added that they had previously explored their legal options to challenge the use of the hotel but decided against them, as temporary injunctions were not being upheld.
However, the Epping ruling “represents a potentially important legal precedent”, which is why they are “carefully assessing” its significance for Tamworth.
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Minister ‘gets asylum frustration’
“We fully recognise the UK government has a statutory duty to accommodate people seeking asylum. However, we have consistently maintained that the prolonged use of hotel accommodation may not represent the best approach – either for our local community or for the asylum seekers themselves,” she said.
“We will continue to work constructively with government departments and all relevant agencies while making sure the voice of our community is heard at the highest levels of government.”
Last night, Conservative-run Broxbourne Council also announced it was exploring its legal options, and the Reform UK leader of Kent County said she was writing to fellow leaders in Kent to explore whether they could potentially take legal action as well.
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Asylum hotels: ‘People have had enough’
Use of Epping hotel ‘sidestepped public scrutiny’
The prime minister and the home secretary are under huge pressure to clear the asylum backlog and stop using hotels across the country to house those waiting for their applications to be processed.
Protests have sprung up at migrant hotels across the country. But The Bell Hotel in Epping became a focal point in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Epping Forest District Council sought an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at the hotel, owned by Somani Hotels Limited, on the basis that using it for that purpose contravened local planning regulations.
The Bell Hotel in Epping. Pic: PA
The interim injunction demanded that the hotel be cleared of its occupants within 14 days, but in his ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Eyre granted the temporary block, while extending the time limit by which it must stop housing asylum seekers to 12 September.
Somani Hotels said it intended to appeal the decision, its barrister, Piers Riley-Smith, arguing it would set a precedent that could affect “the wider strategy” of housing asylum seekers in hotels.
A government attempt to delay the application was rejected by the High Court judge earlier on Tuesday, Home Office barristers arguing the case had a “substantial impact” on the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, in performing her legal duties to asylum seekers.
But Mr Justice Eyre dismissed the Home Office’s bid, stating that the department’s involvement was “not necessary”.
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The judge said the hotel’s owners “sidestepped the public scrutiny and explanation which would otherwise have taken place if an application for planning permission or for a certificate of lawful use had been made”.
He added: “It was also deliberately taking the chance that its understanding of the legal position was incorrect. This is a factor of particular weight in the circumstances of this case.”
Reacting to Tuesday’s judgment, border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said the government will “continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns”.
She added: “Our work continues to close all asylum hotels by the end of this parliament.”
A row has broken out between the Tories and Reform about previous comments on migrant hotels, so who said what and when?
At the centre of the argument is an interview Robert Jenrick did with Sky News back in November 2022, one week after he was appointed immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government.
His appearance came amid a crisis at an asylum seeker processing centre in Kent, which had become severely overcrowded – with migrants sleeping on the floor and families being housed in marquees.
Politics latest: Councils plan legal challenges to migrant hotels
The home secretary at the time, Suella Braverman, had also been accused of allowing the situation to develop by failing to procure sufficient alternative accommodation – such as hotels – for migrants to be taken to.
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Full clip: Jenrick on hotels in 2022
Asked about this by Sky News in 2022, Robert Jenrick said: “More hotels have been coming online almost every month throughout the whole of this year.
“So, Suella Braverman and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels. What I have done in my short tenure is ramp that up and procure even more because November, historically, has been one of the highest months of the year for migrants illegally crossing the Channel.”
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Council wins asylum hotel case
Fast-forward almost three years, and this clip has been seized on by Reform UK as evidence that Mr Jenrick “boasted” about how many migrant hotels he had opened.
That’s a potentially damaging accusation, given the now shadow justice secretary recently joined protests outside a migrant hotel in Essex.
Mr Jenrick responded by accusing Reform of posting a “selectively clipped” video that didn’t include the context about the Kent processing centre.
To an extent, he has a point.
Nigel Farage’s party has posted clips of Mr Jenrick speaking from 2022
Pic: PA
At the time, the government was fighting accusations that they were risking an expensive court action from migrants claiming they were being detained unlawfully.
The minister’s response was to point out that they were sourcing alternative options to make sure this didn’t happen and to prevent order breaking down in Kent.
Mr Jenrick has also pointed to other comments he made at the time saying, “it is essential we exit the hotels altogether” and describing the expensive hotel bill as “disgraceful”.
But that’s not to say Robert Jenrick hasn’t undergone quite a pronounced shift in both language and substance when it comes to migration.
Mr Jenrick has accused Zia Yusuf of “pushing false and petty crap”
Pic: PA
For instance, in the same Sky News interview in 2022, he said: “I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life. And I understand and appreciate our obligation to refugees.”
At the time, this wasn’t a surprising view from a minister commonly considered to be in the centre of the Tory party.
But Mr Jenrick’s time as immigration minister saw him move further to the right.
As he has since said himself: “I could see the breakdown of the British state was doing immense damage. It angered me, and it motivated me to do absolutely everything to fix the problem.”
The following months saw Mr Jenrick significantly harden his position, to the point that he resigned over the government’s approach.
But the bigger contradiction Reform is trying to get at by picking this fight is around the Tory record.
It is a fact that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers peaked at just over 55,000 while the Conservatives were in power.
Similarly, it’s a fact that legal migration reached record levels on the Tories watch.
Mr Jenrick can fairly claim that – in the final year of his front-bench career – he did go further than most to try to change this.
But he can’t change the data from the time.
Reform knows that – just as it also knows the Tory record on migration is one of the big pull factors bringing their voters over to them.
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