Warning signs were missed and the killer’s history of disturbing behaviour and violent behaviour not addressed, the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall heard.
00:00Southport killer Axel Rudicabana could and should have been stopped before launching his murderous attack on children, a public inquiry's heard.
00:08Families of the children he stabbed and killed criticised the role of safeguarding services and questioned the part played by Rudicabana's own parents.
00:18Warning signs were missed and the killer's history of disturbing and violent behaviour not addressed, the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall has heard.
00:26Nicholas Bowen KC, representing all the bereaved families, said responsibility fell not only on public bodies failing to protect public safety, but also on the killer's family who knew but ignored the risk he posed.
00:38Mr Bowen told the hearing, but for multiple failures, the families believed Rudicabana could and should have been stopped.
00:45The hearing was told no one state agency, either in police, schools, health or social services, had the full picture, but none had joined the dots.
00:53Mr Bowen cited the incident when Rudicabana, three times referred to Anti-Terror Government Intervention Programme Prevent, was reported missing by his family and found by police on a bus carrying a knife more than two years before the fatal attack.
01:06He said it likely if a full assessment had taken place, then authorities would have discovered the increasing risk he posed, his purchase of knives and weapons online and the aggression he was displaying at the family home he shared with his parents in Banks near Southport.
01:21Mr Bowen reminded the inquiry about evidence that Rudicabana had repeatedly taken a knife into his school, saying he wanted to kill another pupil he alleged had bullied him and attacked another child with a hockey stick.
01:35Despite the involvement of various child health and safeguarding professionals, Rudicabana felt below the radar.
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