Inside Southport killer’s bedroom as police find enough raw material to poison thousands

A judge sentenced the eighteen-year-old to at least 52 years in prison.

Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty on Monday to the murder of three children, and was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Justice Goose gave the Cardiff-born killer concurrent life sentences with minimum terms for 18 years for eight counts of attempting to murder children and 16 years for the attempted murder of two adults.

Because he was 17 when he committed the murders of 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar and 6-year-old Bebe King, Rudakubana could not be given a whole life order sentence.

The judge added that it is ‘highly likely he will never be released’ from prison.

When police raided Rudakubana's home after he carried out the attack in Southport on July 29, they found knives, archery arrows and a mystery substance later found to be ricin - a biological toxin 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide.

The poison was found in a sealed food container under his bed at Old School Close, Banks, where officers also found a pair of safety goggles, a lab beaker and a pestle and mortar.

A bag which had contained castor seeds - used to make the substance - was also found, having been bought in 2022.

The court heard that there was enough ricin found to make up to 12,500 lethal doses of the poison, had Rudakubanu continued manufacturing it.

Also at the property were a machete, 12 archery arrows and a knife identical to the one used in the attack at The Hart Space dance studio in Southport.

Several listings for what appeared to be the same knife were found to be available online, including on Amazon.

Images and documents relating to violence, war and genocide were found on his devices.

The internet browsing history on a laptop in his home was deleted shortly before Rudakubana left the house, investigations are understood to have found.