Overview

• An email shown to the Southport Inquiry revealed PC Paul Harrison wrote in December 2019 that he feared Axel Rudakubana might be a terrorist, a view his sergeant said was reinforced by Prevent’s interest.
• Evidence recapped that at age 13 Rudakubana brought knives to school, researched US school shootings, and days after a Prevent referral assaulted a pupil with a hockey stick while found with a knife.
• Detective Constable Paula Murphy said searches of the teenager’s devices after the school incident found nothing relevant, and described him laughing during interview as his mother did not challenge his behaviour.
• PC David Fairclough testified that in March 2022 he graded a missing‑person report as medium risk to Rudakubana himself, was unaware of multiple Prevent referrals, misread an earlier incident log, and was told a kitchen knife was missing.
• A police witness told the inquiry that responsibility for assessing Rudakubana’s risk was shared, with no single agency holding overall control.