The Conservatives have called for the forthcoming public inquiry into the Southport murders to consider why the police, prosecutors and government did not make public more details about the killer last summer before his trial.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have both said the government could not have risked Axel Radukabana walking free by ignoring advice that publishing information could have jeopardised his trial.
But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it was likely an “information vacuum” had resulted in misinformation which “fuelled” the riots which followed the Southport attack.
He asked why the discovery of ricin and a copy of an al-Qaeda training manual in Radukabana’s house could not have been swiftly revealed.
Cooper said the government had wanted to make public that Radukabana had been referred to the counter-extremism programme Prevent, but could not because of legal advice.
Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder on 31 July, shortly after launching his attack which killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.
Within days, in early August, officers searching Rudakubana’s home found ricin and a file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants, the Al Qaeda training manual”.
The government was kept up-to-date about the discovery. The BBC has been told the ricin was in a Tupperware box in his bedroom.
Police rarely give details of an ongoing investigation without what they describe as a “policing purpose”.
In this case, false rumours were spreading online about the killer, including that he had migrated to Britain.
Senior officers felt under pressure to reassure the public, and dispel some of the rumours about the suspect by making clear he was in fact British.
But after discovering the ricin and manual they did not immediately make this public.
The investigation continued, with searches taking weeks because of the need for teams to wear hazmat suits and take a break every 40 minutes.
As they prepared to announce the outcome to the investigation, senior police officers became frustrated that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was advising them to withhold many details they felt should be made public, due to false claims online.
The killer was not charged with production of a biological weapon, and possession of information likely to be useful for terrorism, until 29 October 2024.
Sources close to the handling of the case say police wanted to announce these charges and reveal the discovery of the ricin and manual 11 days earlier, on 18 October, but there was a hold-up as the CPS and the police negotiated over what could be said publicly.
A source said the CPS “put a load of red pen through the statement”.
Rudakubana was finally charged with the additional two offences on 29 October.
It was at this point, three months after the Southport attacks, that police made public for the first time that the ricin and manual had been found.
He was not charged with preparing for acts of terrorism, because under current laws this would involve finding evidence of a political motivation or ideology, and none had been found.
The prime minister suggested on Tuesday the laws defining terrorism might need to change to take account of lone attackers without a clear motivation.
Rudakubana has now pleaded guilty to all the charges he faced and will be sentenced on Thursday.
Normally the risk of jeopardising the case falls away once all charges have been decided, either by a plea, or a jury reaching a verdict.
Crime reporters attended a police and CPS-led briefing setting out the entire case – but on Monday, the CPS again decided the information should not be published, this time until after the sentencing.
Despite that, the prime minister and home secretary have both given details about the case in the Commons.
Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy official spokesperson told political reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the prime minister had “not strayed” into areas related to sentencing.
Yet the CPS insists it needs to protect the sentencing process due to take place on Thursday.
Nick Price, CPS director of legal services, said: “The next stage of the process is for the prosecution to present our full case to the court on Thursday – including relevant details of the defendant’s past – so the judge can consider all the evidence when passing sentence.
“This will be the point when the full details of this case will be heard by the public.
“We recognise the profound interest in these proceedings, and it is important the prosecution case is presented to the court so the facts can be determined which may inform the sentence handed down.”
The CPS has taken this position because it believes the judge is entitled to make factual findings about the case and must also determine what weight to attach to different aspects of the evidence.
However, the Crime Reporters Association, representing around 50 senior crime and home affairs correspondents, has written to the CPS raising concerns that the service is breaching a long-established principle that there is no legal risk in publishing material about a case after guilty pleas and before sentencing.
The CPS said in its response that the “independence of the judge must be respected”.