Southport killer’s father defended ‘good boy’ for bringing knife to school, inquiry told | UK | News

The father of the Southport attacker told a public inquiry his son was a “good boy” even after the teenager admitted taking a knife to school to stab someone. Headteacher Michael McGarry of Range High School in Formby told the Southport Inquiry on Wednesday that Axel Rudakubana was permanently expelled in October 2019 after admitting to Childline that he had been bringing a weapon into school.

Less than four years later, on July 29 last year, Rudakubana, then 17, murdered seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, six-year-old Bebe King, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar during an attack on a Southport dance class. Mr McGarry said Rudakubana, referred to during the inquiry as AR, had good attendance at school in his first two years but that there was a “marked and rapid escalation” in his behaviour in October 2019.

The inquiry heard that on October 7 that year, Rudakubana and another boy were sent home from school after a fight in an English class.

Mr McGarry said that evening he was told police had contacted the school to report that Rudakubana had admitted bringing a knife in.

He later learned Rudakubana said he intended to “stab someone because he was tired of being pushed around.”

The decision was made to permanently exclude him, but his parents were allowed to appeal to a governing board meeting.

Ahead of that meeting, the inquiry heard, Rudakubana’s father Alphonse emailed PC Alexander McNamee, the Lancashire Constabulary officer who had visited the family home.

In the email, Mr Rudakubana said: “Axel knew that what he was doing was wrong but he also knew that the school was relaxed about fighting, intimidation — a really gang culture among students in the school.

“One must be terrified to carry a weapon knowing that it is extremely dangerous.

“However, he deserves credit to have reported himself to carry a knife and with it a second chance to stay at the school if he wishes to. He is a good boy. I know him.”

He also accused the school of fostering a “bullying culture.”

Mr McGarry, who began working at the school in September 2019, said he did not recognise that description and that no one had been found with a knife at the school since Rudakubana.

The inquiry heard that on December 11 2019, Rudakubana returned to the school and managed to “tailgate” someone into the building.

Mr McGarry said he had been giving an assembly when he spotted Rudakubana, who ran off “very quickly.”

The headteacher followed him down the corridor and saw a group of students approaching.

“That was the point where he produced this hockey stick out from underneath the puffa jacket he had on,” he said. “He raised the hockey stick back as if he was going to swipe it towards these students. It hit another student.”

Mr McGarry said he grabbed Rudakubana in a “bear hug” as a colleague took the hockey stick away.

They took him into the headteacher’s office, where Rudakubana said little but made “some utterances” about looking for the boy he blamed for his exclusion and wanting to kill him.

Police were called and found a knife in his bag.

Mr McGarry told the inquiry: “He didn’t seem concerned about it. There was no sense of shock. I remember being very shocked at what I had seen.”

Axel’s father then arrived at the school after being called in.

Mr McGarry said: “When he came in he sort of looked at the boy. He said his name and was kind of ‘what have you done,’ and there wasn’t really any reaction from AR.”

When police explained where Rudakubana would be taken, his father became “quite argumentative” and said it wasn’t convenient for him to go there.

“I remember saying to dad, ‘Do you realise the seriousness of what your son has done today?’ — to himself but also to the school community here at Range,” Mr McGarry said. “I didn’t really get any reaction whatsoever. He just kept on arguing with the police.”

The inquiry was adjourned until Thursday, when more evidence from teaching staff is expected.