So police, exactly how wasn’t the Southport murders a terror attack?
So, depressingly but critically, it turns out that being born in Britain doesn’t give you a British identity.
I’d always thought it was a given, but Axel Rudakubana, who was born in 2006 in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, clearly despises his country.
And he turned this perverted twisted hate into the murder of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – three little girls attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on the first day of the summer holidays.
Today, completely without contrition, the 18-year-old who stabbed those little girls to death admitted their murder at Liverpool Crown Court.
Astonishingly, he also faced 13 other charges. He was charged with possession of a knife.
The police have always maintained he is not a terrorist. He was charged with the production of the biological toxin ricin.
The police have always maintained he is not a terrorist.
He was charged with possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
The police have always maintained he is not a terrorist.
He was charged with possessing a computer file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual.
The police have always maintained he is not a terrorist. Ever get the feeling something doesn’t feel right?
Perhaps more shockingly, the killer was reportedly referred three times to Prevent, the Government’s scheme to stop terrorist violence.
According to The Guardian: “His behaviour, including his apparent interest in violence, was assessed by Prevent as potentially concerning. But he was deemed not to be motivated by a terrorist ideology or pose a terrorist danger and was therefore not considered suitable for the counter-radicalisation scheme.”
How? How is the production of ricin not a terrorist red flag? Why is ownership of an Al Qaeda manual not a red flag?
The internet is of course ablaze with outrage and conspiracy right now. But for once, I think I’m with it.
Of course a bunch of violent racists who descended on Southport following the murders sparked riots nationwide.
Mosques were targeted in Hartlepool and Liverpool, and there were 32 protests in 24 towns and cities in the seven days.
The protests were based, we were told, on false information.
Rudakubana was not a migrant, he was British. He was not a Muslim, he was not a terrorist, he was not a radical.
That wasn’t quite actually all true, was it? The whole truth was being hidden from us.
And the whole thing stinks of the same police and politician complicity as the rape gangs scandal.
Just tell us the bloody truth. It’s a democracy, we’re grown-ups, we’ll deal with whatever it is.
The lies will always, always be worse.
Of course, a court case expected to run for weeks was today truncated to 15 minutes as the killer admitted his guilt.
And perhaps the true facts would have emerged from the evidence – evidence we will now never hear.
I feel like I am writing this every day, but there have been immediate calls for a public inquiry.
And there are so many questions that need answering here. How did he become radicalised? How did Prevent miss it? Were the police covering up the truth?
The anger is palpable, the mistakes, once again, legion.
The tragic truth is, of course, none of this will bring those three beautiful little girls back.
But, as the deputy chief prosecutor for Mersey and Cheshire walked away after addressing the press outside court, a disembodied voice said: “The angels will live on.”
A deep inquiry into what went so badly wrong is perhaps one way they will do that.