It could take ‘years’ for police to find out what Southport ‘monster’ Axel Rudakubana looked at online in the run-up to the dance studio attack, it emerged today.
The ‘violence-obsessed’ teenager deleted his internet browsing history minutes before getting a taxi to the Taylor Swift-themed summer club and launching his mass murder bid.
Finding out what Rudakubana searched for on Google and Microsoft Bing could provide crucial evidence about whether the murders of three girls and attempt to kill eight more were a terror attack.
The detective who led the investigation today revealed his frustration that it could take ‘years’ for search engines to supply the data they hold.
However global tech giant Google hit back, saying it would have been able to pass on any information it held had officers gone through ‘established channels’.
Following the horrifying killings of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, in Southport last summer, police seized multiple electronic devices from Rudakubana’s family home in the nearby village of Banks.
Examination of a Lenovo tablet found that minutes before setting off, the killer had researched the April 2024 Sydney church attack, in which Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and five others were stabbed, on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
But while he was found to have downloaded a host of documents and leaflets about some of the 20th century’s worst atrocities, detectives say they have been unable to access his deleted browsing history because the dance studio murders weren’t declared a terrorist incident.
Police say it could take years to uncover Axel Rudakubana’s internet history because his murderous attack in Southport was not considered a terrorist incident
Merseyside Police’s Detective Chief Inspector Jason Pye said his officers had struggled to get hold of the crucial evidence that could tell them why Rudakubana targeted children
Search giant Google has fired back with a claim that police could have requested the information via the UK courts
Read More
No 10 confirms review of how to make killers face victims' families in court after 'beyond cowardly' Axel Rudakubana refused in final 'twisted act'
That meant they couldn’t urgently request any details held by the tech firms via the FBI.
As a result, they face a ‘catch-22 situation’ where they have not been able to check if his searches demonstrate he did have a terrorist ideology – because the attack wasn’t declared terrorism.
After Rudakubana – now 18 – was yesterday given 13 life sentences and ordered to serve at least 52 years behind bars for the ‘sadistic’ murders, the senior investigating officer revealed his frustration.
‘If this was deemed counter-terrorism, there would have been an easier process to get that information earlier,’ Det Chf Insp Jason Pye of Merseyside Police said.
‘There is a process of getting it quicker, but because it’s in the serious organized crime, major crime category, unfortunately, I can’t get it as quick as what we would like.
‘The process of getting that could be years. It could take us years.’
Rudakubana used a VPN to conceal his identity – and the fact he was under 18 – when he bought the 20cm knife used in the attack from Amazon 16 days earlier.
Axel Rudakubana is seen on CCTV before he entered the Hart Space community centre and slaughtered three young children, injuring ten others
A knife identical to that used by Axel Rudakubana in the Southport attack, as seen in an image issued by Merseyside Police. He bought the blade on Amazon
(Left to right) Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King were killed in the attack
But his previous web searches were made through mainstream search engines Google and Microsoft Bing, rather than the dark web.
Officers did uncover more than 164,000 documents which had been downloaded from the internet and stored on Rudakubana’s devices.
Documents found stored on Rudakubana’s devices showed he was ‘fascinated with violence of an extreme nature’, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told yesterday’s sentencing hearing.
Read More
EXCLUSIVE
Axel Rudakubana 'will have bounty on his head behind bars': Southport monster faces being held in isolation and moved around jails to protect him from being targeted by 'prison napalm'
These included books, manuals and academic papers about topics including the 1994 genocide in his parents’ native Rwanda, clan cleansing in Somalia and the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.
Also found was a PDF file entitled ‘Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual’.
It was this which led to Rudakubana being charged with – and admitting – possession of terrorist material.
Today Google said ‘Our deepest sympathies are with all of the families and individuals affected by this horrific attack.
‘We are in touch with the Merseyside Police to support their inquiries with regards to this case.’
Microsoft was approached for comment.
In a statement, Merseyside Police said: ‘We have submitted requests through the correct channels for a criminal investigation.’
Police and forensic scene of crime officers on the scene of the attack in Hart Street, Southport on July 29 2024
Axel Rudakubana attempted to disrupt court proceedings as he faced sentencing – claiming he was ill. He ultimately did not return to court to hear his sentence after being ejected twice
A court sketch of Mr Justice Goose reading out Rudakubana’s sentence to the empty seat between two prison officers where the twisted killer should have been
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused the Government of a ‘gigantic cover-up’ after the murders were not classed as terrorism
The van carrying Axel Rudakubana leaves Liverpool Crown Court after he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage this week accused the Government of a ‘gigantic cover-up from day one’, claiming the authorities ‘refused to class the murders as terror-related for fear of the reaction there might have been’.
Prosecutors have insisted Rudakubana’s crimes did not meet the legal requirement to be deemed terrorism as he was not motivated by a known political or religious ideology.
But jailing Rudakubana for life yesterday, Mr Justice Goose said his ‘sadistic’ attempt at mass murder was ‘equivalent’ to an act of terror.
He added that the documents police had been able to uncover demonstrated the killer’s ‘longstanding preoccupation with violent killing and genocide’.
Det Chf Insp Pye has previously said he would have been ‘happy’ for the July 29 outrage to have been declared a terror attack ‘all day long’ as it would have given him more time to question Rudakubana.
But he defended the decision, saying the lack of any known political or religious ideology in Rudakubana’s motivation meant in the eyes of the law it couldn’t amount to terrorism.
On Tuesday Sir Keir Starmer said the law may need reforming, saying ‘terrorism has changed’ and the threat from ‘loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom’ needs to be taken more seriously