Inside Axel Rudakubana’s semi-detached home in Banks, West Lancashire, where he lived with his parents, officers found a deadly array of weapons after his killing spree
Photos from inside teenage child killer Axel Rudakubana’s home where he left from on the day he took the lives of three innocent young girls have been released by police.
He was just 17 when he horrifically attacked Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, along with other children and supervisors at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last year.
Just two hours after the dreadful knife attack, and with the teenager in custody, armed officers from Merseryside Police descended on his home where he lived with his parents. Inside the new-build semi-detached home in Banks, West Lancashire, they discovered a deadly array of weapons.
Officers found a Tupperware box containing an unknown material, as well as a pestle and mortar also containing an unknown pulp like substance. It was later confirmed to be ricin – a highly toxic and potentially fatal substance derived from castor beans. Enquiries later revealed that Rudakubana had ordered a total of 150 castor bean seeds online under the name “Al Rud” as long ago as January 2022.
A cardboard box found underneath the floorboards of his bedroom contained a pair of goggles, funnels and a conical flask with the remnants of a brown residue. All of these items had been purchased from Amazon during 2022.
Detectives do not believe that Rudakubana used ricin during the July 29 stabbings or at any other time, suggesting that any possible chemical element of his assault was strictly experimental. However, his interest in carrying out such an attack was obvious.
Officers found he had downloaded a PDF file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” back in 2021, as well as a plethora of historic literature about violence, war, murder and genocide, fuelling his obsession and fixation. The discoveries proved how the horrifying attack that claimed the lives of three young girls was not a random or sporadic act of severe violence, but a premeditated plan to commit mass murder on some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Yesterday, Rudakubana was told he will spend a minimum of 52 years behind bars – and likely the rest of his life in jail for what the judge Mr Justice Goose called “the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime”.
Despite being arrested with the knife in his hands Rudakubana had denied killing the children until the trial got underway, when he eventually pleaded guilty to all the charges. He said: “I’m glad they’re dead” as he was held in a custody suite after killing them, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
He was sentenced to 13 life sentences for three counts of murder and 10 charges of attempted murder. Mr Justice Goose said: “In just 15 minutes, Rudakubana murdered three children and attempted to murder eight other children and two adults. He was prevented from murdering more only by the escape of other children. He will serve almost the whole of his life in custody. I consider it likely he will never be released and he will be in custody for all of his life.”
He added: “It was such extreme violence… it is difficult to comprehend why it was done. I am sure Rudakubana had the settled determination to carry out these offences and had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child – all 26 of them.”
