The head of the Prevent counterterrorism programme, Michael Stewart, has said he will leave his role after a report into the Southport attack which killed three young girls found it had failed to stop the killer.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had concerns about the damning review which found a litany of missed opportunities to kill evil Axel Rudakubana, it was reported today.
His knife attack on a class of young girls at a Taylor Swift themed event in July led to the deaths of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe seven.
Ten others, including two adults, were injured in the attacks.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had concerns about the damning review which found a litany of missed opportunities to kill evil Axel Rudakubana, it was reported today
Victims: Bebe King (left), six, Elsie Dot Stancombe (centre), seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar (right), nine, died during the mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport
Rudakubana’s terrifying and deadly knife rampage left the nation appalled
The killings sparked major unrest around the UK after false rumours circled that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in a small boat
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 52 years in January.
A rapid ‘Prevent learning review’ carried out into the Southport attack found that the killer was flagged to Prevent three times before his killing spree, and concerns about him were dismissed early due to him not having a fixed terrorist ideology.
Stewart was also held reponsible for a controversial Home Officer review that proposed that police record non-crime hate incidents and widening the definition of extremism.
He has now agreed to step down, the Times reports.
Following the report’s publication, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons the government rejected the proposals.
The Home Secretary will set out a new framework for tackling extremism and hateful ideologies next year.
In what prosecutors described as a ‘meticulously-planned rampage’, Rudakubana carried out his attack and stabbed teacher Leanne Lucas repeatedly as she tried to save the children.
Businessman John Hayes, who rushed to the scene from his office nearby and attempted to overpower Rudakubana, was also stabbed. Others nearby who heard screams also rushed to the scene and police arrived, bringing the horrific incident to an end.
In 12 minutes of mayhem, Rudakubana, wearing a green hooded top and surgical facemask, knifed as many children as he could, even pulling one girl back as she tried to flee. Ms Lucas’s fellow dance teacher Heidi Liddle hid in a toilet with one child.
Fuelled by misinformation that the perpetrator, then 17, was a Muslim migrant who had crossed the Channel on a dinghy, the horrific incident in the Merseyside town on July 29 last year sparked days of rioting across Britain.
Within a month, 1,280 people had been arrested and 796 people charged over the anti-migrant violence. Nearly 500 were jailed.
It has since emerged there were up to 15 chances to stop Rudakubana – also to be sentenced for possession of poison ricin, which he had manufactured at home using castor beans, and possessing an Al Qaeda training manual.