UK is becoming a WAR ZONE as BLACK deaths increase

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Axel Rudakubana admitted carrying knifes


Mugshot of Axel RudakubanaImage

Axel Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana admitted carrying a knife more than 10 times but was still able to buy a blade on Amazon, the home secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper said public bodies "completely failed to identify the terrible danger that he posed" as his obsession with extreme violence developed in the years before the attack.

On Monday, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to the murder of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, last July. He will be sentenced on Thursday.

Earlier, the prime minister warned of a "new and dangerous threat" from violence-obsessed individuals. A public inquiry into missed opportunities to stop Rudakubana has been announced.

Cooper told the Commons it was a "total disgrace" that he was "easily able to order a knife on Amazon" at the age of 17 despite having a prior conviction for a violent offence against another child at school.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company had "launched an urgent investigation in relation to this tragic case".

The home secretary also said there would be a "thorough review" of the anti-extremism programme Prevent, after it emerged that Rudakubana was referred to it on three separate occasions between 2019 and 2021.

An initial review over the summer found Prevent failed to flag Rudakubana as a serious threat because he did not exhibit a commitment to a single radical ideology, Cooper told the Commons.

She said the three referrals took place after he expressed an interest in school shootings, the 2017 London Bridge attack, the IRA, MI5 and the Middle East.

"Too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology," Cooper said, in light of the fact Rudakubana was "obsessed with massacre or extreme violence".

Cooper said it was "unbearable to think that something more could and should have been done" to stop him, and that "action against him was much too weak".

Red flags

The home secretary said a public inquiry would be given all the powers it needed to assess whether red flags were missed. Areas of interest are likely to include:

The five occasions Lancashire Constabulary officers responded to calls from Rudakubana's home address between October 2019 and May 2022, relating to concerns about his behaviour

Repeated referrals to safeguarding services, children's social care and adolescent mental health services

A referral to the youth offending team after Rudakubana's conviction for a violent offence

Concerns passed on to the local authority by Childline following calls by Rudakubana as a teen, including one where he disclosed he planned to take a knife to school because of racial bullying

His exclusion and non-attendance at school

"There are grave questions about how this network of agencies failed to identify and act on the risks," Cooper said.

Speaking in Downing Street earlier on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer said failings by public bodies in the lead-up to the Southport murders "leap off the page".

He said that it was "clearly wrong" Rudakubana was deemed not to meet the threshold for intervention from the Prevent programme, and warned of the rising risk posed by "loners, misfits" radicalised online unconnected from formal extremist groups.

On Monday, Rudakubana also pleaded guilty to the possession of an al-Qaeda training manual - a terror offence

However, police have never treated his case as terror-related as he did not appear to follow a single ideology. Cooper said terror laws would be reassessed in light of this.

The circumstances around Rudakubana's offending have led to wider scrutiny over what the government has described as an increasing threat from young people with an interest in extreme violence.

Cooper told the Commons that 162 people were referred to Prevent last year over concerns related to school massacres, amid what she described as a "wider challenge of rising youth violence and extremism".

The number of children investigated for involvement with terrorism has increased threefold in three years, she added.

The government said tech companies must remove the type of extreme material Rudakubana had accessed online.

They "should not be profiting" from hosting content that "puts children's lives at risk", Cooper said.

Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguia all lost their lives in the attack

Opposition parties have put pressure on the government over what information was released to the public about offences Rudakubana was being investigated over prior to his guilty pleas.

On Tuesday, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said "we need to know who in government knew what and when".

But Cooper said there was a risk Rudakubana could have "walked away a free man" if the government had released information that prejudiced his ability to have a fair trial under UK law.

However, the home secretary acknowledged the spread of misinformation on social media "puts those long established rules under strain" and said contempt of court laws were being reviewed by the Law Commission.

Misinformation about the Rudakubana's identity spread in the aftermath of the Southport attack, fuelling violent disorder.

Posts falsely claiming Rudakubana - who was born in Cardiff - was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat were shared widely online.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested over the subsequent riots and hundreds have been charged and jailed.

Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, admitted three counts of murder and the attempted murders of eight other children and two adults.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing a knife on the date of the attack, production of a biological toxin - namely, ricin - and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8j453e7z1o

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Man charged with murder
after boy killed in Stockwell

A 32-year-old man has been charged with murder after a teenage boy died in a shooting in south London

Omar Prempeh was charged with murder on Saturday following the fatal shooting of Lathaniel Burrell.

The 16-year-old, from Stockwell, died at the scene following the shooting on Paradise Road on Tuesday, 4 March.

Prempeh, of Stanstead Road, Forest Hill, is due to appear at Bromley Magistrates' Court on Monday.

The Metropolitan Police said Lathaniel's family continue to be supported by specialist officers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmj4kxemxro

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Two teenagers stabbed after
dozens of youths storm school

Two teenagers were stabbed after a large group of youths, some armed with machetes and knives, gatecrashed a 16th birthday party at a school hall in east London

Fighting broke out at around 9pm on Saturday after the gang turned up at the party at Elm Park Primary School, according to reports.

A 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man suffered suspected knife injuries and were rushed to hospital, the Met Police said.

It is understood their injuries are not life-changing nor life-threatening and both victims continue to assist police with their enquiries.

One neighbour told the Havering Daily: “It was total chaos. We saw between 40 to 50 youths, running through the streets.

“We think they had knives as they were seen dropping weapons in people's driveways and running away.

“They were attacking the police and there were so many of them that the police had to just disperse them. We couldn't believe what we saw.”

Footage from the incident appears to show a large group of children fleeing a school hall screaming, as an individual at the back of the room can be seen raising a weapon above their heads.

The Met Police said officers were called shortly after 9pm to reports of a fight involving a group on Calbourne Avenue.

Officers engaged with a group of teenagers who then became aggressive toward them, the force said.

Three teenagers were arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault on emergency workers and taken to an east London police station.

The Met said they were bailed to return for questioning later on Monday.

Meanwhile, the officers were treated at the scene by medics from the London Ambulance Service and did not require hospital treatment.

An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/elm-park-two- ... JysuTpLyjC

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Teens buying stab vests online

to wear at school

Teenagers are buying stab vests online and wearing them to school, an anti-knife campaigner said

Wes Cunliffe, from Newport, turned his life around after being attacked while involved in drug dealing.

He believes the fear of knife crime in Wales, and rest of UK, has reached a point where young people are purchasing items to protect themselves and it comes after the UK government announced new measures to make buying weapons online more difficult

Gwent Police said it was not aware of stab vests being worn or stashed but would welcome hearing more about young people's experiences, while the Welsh government said it took school safety "extremely seriously".

Mr Cunliffe, 34, referred to the many high-profile knife crime cases in Wales, including the murder of 17-year-old Harry Baker as well as the attempted murder of two teachers and a pupil by a 14-year-old girl.

"A lot of young people I know are wearing stab vests because they're thinking someone could attack at any given time," Mr Cunliffe told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast

"When you see things like Temu come up on your apps, it actually comes up with stab vests. And then they stash them locally around the communities and estates in Newport."

In the UK, there are currently no legal restrictions on the purchase and ownership of stab protection products.

Mr Cunliffe has been an anti-knife campaigner and youth mentor for about eight years and said he had spoken to more than 300 young people about knife crime.

"Young people are telling me they're carrying knives through fear. If there's a bit of conflict between two teenage individuals, for example, then both teenagers will end up picking up a weapon as protection.

"Everywhere you look on social media, you see young people, balaclavas on, attacking each other with machetes, knives, hammers, screwdrivers. The violence is absolutely unreal."

He said he went into schools and colleges in Newport, Cardiff, Swansea and across the UK, as well as working with South Wales Police on its Not The One, external knife campaign.

Mr Cunliffe was attacked while involved in drug dealing when he was 16.

"Fortunately, I lived, however there are a lot of young people who unfortunately haven't," he said.

He added he does not tell young people what to do but showed them his scars and felt he could "understand how they view the world".

The number of serious offences involving a knife or sharp object recorded in the year ending March 2024 in Wales and England was 54% higher than in 2016, according to ONS figures with knife crime reaching an all-time high in 2020.

The new measures announced by the UK government - known as Ronan's Law, after 16-year-old Ronan Kanda who was murdered three years ago - involve rules for selling knives online and tougher penalties for those who break them.

Mr Cunliffe said it was a start but not "the full solution", with "a whole community approach" needed.

Wes Cunliffe goes into schools to share his experiences and the "risks and consequences" of knife crime

Self-defence instructor James Bourne runs a nightclub security firm in Cardiff and said he had worked with many young people who feared being attacked.

He often wears stab protection clothing and said he knew of young people buying products online, including "slash-proof hoodies" but warned there was no guarantee it would protect them, and wearing these items did not justify carrying a knife.

Mr Bourne, 51, spent five years offering self-defence classes to children and young people for free, and continued to coach some clients on a private basis.

A search online brings up a variety of stab vests for sale, starting at about £15

He has been the victim of knife attacks, "because of repercussions of my job", including being stabbed five times while working in Cardiff.

He also said one of his staff had to deal with the aftermath of a stabbing while on their way to work recently when "two young boys" had been stabbed in the head and neck.

The father-of-five added knife crime would not be eradicated "as long as humans walk this planet", but he hoped to "inspire self-confidence" through self-defence.

Earlier this year, actor and anti-knife campaigner Idris Elba spoke to young people as part of the Premier League Kicks programme, which works with 90 football clubs including in Swansea and Cardiff, and offers free football and workshop sessions where participants "can discuss issues that are impacting their everyday lives, such as knife crime".

Some of the teenagers at a session in east London said they tried to keep themselves safe by wearing stab vests or multiple layers of clothing, the Mirror newspaper reported.

Elba released a BBC documentary in January, which followed him as he mounted a campaign to try to stop knife crime in the UK.

Swansea City AFC Foundation, which runs sessions with young people in Wales under the scheme, said it had "noticed that some young people express concerns about safety and have mentioned initiatives like purchasing stab vests".

"It reflects a troubling reality that many young individuals feel increasingly vulnerable. To address this fear, we believe it's crucial to focus on community engagement, education, and positive activities that promote conflict resolution and self-worth, rather than self-defence equipment," it said

James Bourne says he has been stabbed at work multiple times and thinks young people should be equipped with the skills to defend themselves without weapons

Gwent Police's Ch Supt Jason White said officers regularly visited schools "to educate and speak to children directly to highlight the potential risks of carrying a knife".

Ch Supt Esyr Jones of South Wales Police said the area was "no different to anywhere else" in seeing rising knife crime.

He added: "Please think about how your future could be ruined if you are caught carrying or using a knife.

"Please also speak to us if you think someone is carrying a knife - it can be difficult, but it will help ensure that that weapon can't be used to cause serious injury, or worse."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czdnp76ddygo