Axel Rudakubana’s bedroom, where police found an array of evidence (Image: Merseyside Police)
Under the wooden bunk beds a number of other items were recovered. Also under the bed was found, a machete and a scabbard, a set of arrows, a black holdall, an empty plastic bag labelled as ‘premier seeds’.
Inquiries with Premier Seeds show that these castor beans were purchased in the name of A Rud on the 19th of January 2022.
Officers also found a cardboard box with Rudakubana’s fingerprints on it. This contained a pestle and mortar, which also contained the pulp like material, a pair of safety goggles, two white funnels containing a brown residue.
A mortar and pestle found in Axel Rudakubana’s bedroom (Image: Merseyside Police)
In the living room – where it is believed Rudakubana had actually been sleeping – more items were found, including a duvet on the sofa, which had an identical 20cm blade to the one the killer would take to The Hart Space. Police discovered they were bought from Amazon by Rudakubana.
One of his Lenovo tablets, used since 2021, contained a number of virtual private network VPN applications, which facilitate encrypted digital communications and mask a person’s IP address – from this he bought the castor beans in 2022 he used to make the low-grade ricin.
Images found on the devices related to different wars and international conflicts, including Gaza, , Sudan and Korea.
Weapons found in Rudakubana’s bedroom (Image: Merseyside Police)
There were also images of knives and machetes which originated from Amazon. Police also found other material, which included books, academic papers, leaflets and manuals which also related to war, weapons and genocide.
One document entitled military studies in the jihad against tyrants, the al Qaeda training manual. This contained advice and instruction on committing acts of terror, including the use of poisons and how to carry out a knife attack.
Experts found Rudakubana had downloaded it at least twice in 2021 meaning he had it when he purchased the castor beans and the equipment required to produce the ricin.
A second Lenovo tablet contained also images relating to conflict, such as those in Iraq and the Balkans and violence, including images of dead bodies, victims of torture, tales of beheadings and cartoons depicting killing and violence.