Southport Inquiry opens

The Southport Inquiry, chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford, formally opened on 8 July 2025.

The Inquiry will look at the events of 29 July 2024 when Axel Rudakubana carried out a knife attack at a children’s dance club in Southport in Merseyside. He murdered three young girls, Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King, and injured ten other people. Sixteen others survived the attack but live with the serious emotional scars.

On the 7 April 2025 the Home Secretary announced the Government’s decision to establish the Inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005. The Inquiry’s terms of reference provide that in Phase 1, the Chair shall:

• Establish a definitive account of the events leading up to the Southport attack and the attack itself, including an overall timeline of Axel Rudakubana’s history and interactions with various state systems including criminal justice, education, social care and healthcare. The account of the attack will include the facts and circumstances of each individual death to reflect the purposes of section 5(1) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. The inquiry will consider the accounts of all those directly impacted by the attack.
• Review the decision-making and information-sharing by local services and agencies which interacted with Axel Rudakubana prior to the attack to examine whether there were opportunities to manage the risk he posed to the public, making any required recommendations for improvements.

Jason Beer KC and Jonathan Dixey appear on behalf of Counter Terrorism Police North West.

Francesca Whitelaw KC and Cicely Hayward appear on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department.

John Goss is instructed as junior Counsel to the Inquiry.

Further information can be found on the Inquiry’s website.