Southport inquiry latest: Axel Rudakubana's brother says parents had 'lost control' of him despite police calls

The inquiry hears notes made after a visit to the family home by Lancashire county council in August 2021. 

Axel Rudakubana is reported as saying his father Alphonse hits eight-year-olds, talking about himself, and hits his brother Dion.

The inquiry hears their father, in his witness statement, says the allegations he hit his children were "false". 

But he says he smacked them when they were fighting each other, including the use of a slipper, the inquiry hears. 

Alphonse says in the statement he didn't threaten Axel with a knife, and that he has a "tendency to make false allegations".

Dion agrees his parents had "lost control" of him by 2019 onwards.

The inquiry hears he compared his brother to the "sociopath" from No Country for Old Men, who kills ten people over the course of the film.

"I watched it recently and it concerned me," he tells the inquiry.  

He says during the last interaction he had with him in the summer of 2023, Axel threw a metal bottle at him, but luckily he had already closed the door. 

Dion Rudakubana says he feared his younger brother would kill a member of their family when he left for university in 2022. 

He tells the inquiry Axel Rudakubana's behaviour escalated from when Dion was around 15. 

The inquiry hears messages sent by Dion when he was home for Christmas in 2022. 

He wrote: "My brother doesn't show mercy, my dad just has to try not to die... We hide knives to mitigate that factor." 

Dion tells the inquiry there were times when the police would be called out and remembers one incident when "my father was holding my brother off".

"I remember being scared somebody was going to die… my dad," he says. 

The Southport attacker's brother says Axel Rudakubana was prone to "violent outbursts" and would regularly hit him. 

Dion Rudakubana also says the discussions they had "were more in depth" than those of their friends. 

Dion is two years older than his brother Axel, the inquiry hears. 

Axel would "hit" him but that didn't "seem unusual" for brothers who felt as strong as they did about things, Dion also tells the inquiry. 

Dion adds Axel resented the fact he got more attention and that they had to change schools. 

His brother was bigger than him and he felt "increasingly wary" of him, Dion adds.

Axel had a "short temper" and was physically violent towards him "a few times a week". 

Dion says the violence was "building noticeably" with Axel "breaking or smashing plates and glasses" before he was expelled from school. 

This escalated from September 2019 onwards, he says. 

The Southport attacker's brother Dion Rudakubana swears on the Bible before giving evidence, as he's asked about his childhood. 

The inquiry hears the brothers grew up in Cardiff after their parents came to the UK from Rwanda and were granted asylum.

Dion says the genocide had a "a very heavy influence on them" and their "stories" of what happened to them were "present".

"I don't feel I was traumatised," he says - but he adds he did "emotionally engage" with the genocide and its legacy.

His parents studied for degrees and moved to Southport in 2013 because his mother got a job, Dion adds.

His father retrained as a taxi driver because "he was not finding work in the area he studied in", and "to manage childcare", Dion explains. 

Axel Rudakubana's brother Dion Rudakubana begins giving evidence. 

He's in a remote location giving evidence by video-link, but he's not on camera, so only his voice can be heard at the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall. 

The evidence from social media platform X has now finished. 

We're expecting to hear from Axel Rudakubana's brother Dion Rudakubana when the inquiry resumes. 

Deanna Romina Khananisho is now being asked about a letter sent by then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle to social media firms in the wake of the Southport attack. 

In contrast to TikTok, Meta and Google, X's response said nothing about the victims or the horrific nature of the attack, said counsel to the inquiry Nicholas Moss KC.

The X letter said "it's in the public interest" for people to view this stabbing video watched by Rudakubana before the attack, should they wish to do so, pointing out the bishop who was stabbed had said he didn't want the video removed.

Khananisho, who is representing X, says the firm is "proud to be an outlier" and a "defender of free speech globally". 

She says taking the "God-given right of freedom of speech and freedom of expression from the masses" because of the very few who have committed heinous crimes isn't something taken lightly.

Moss asks "can you understand the sense of anger and dismay no doubt felt by the victims and families of the children who died?", knowing Rudakubana used X to search for material six minutes before launching the attack and "the platform refuses to take it down?"

"Of course, absolutely," says Khananisho.

But she goes on to talk about the importance of free speech as "literally the stronghold of all of our governments, all of our democracies". 

A video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney last year, which was watched by Axel Rudakubana before he carried out the Southport attack, is still being discussed.

The inquiry hears the Australian eSafety commissioner applied to X to take down the video on 16 April last year, but the platform only made it inaccessible to users in Australia. 

As part of the legal battle, a judge said it would be "reasonable" to remove - like most other platforms - but X decided to stick with its policy. 

The inquiry hears Rudakubana had a number of X accounts, including one on which he sent messages, but the social media platform has said it can't disclose the content without violating laws.  

Meta, on the other hand, has disclosed the content data for his Instagram account, says counsel to the inquiry  Nicholas Moss KC. 

'I have no idea'

X also holds the date of birth that Rudakubana gave to set up one of the accounts, which the inquiry requested this morning. 

Asked why she's not in a position to disclose it, Deanna Romina Khananisho, who is giving evidence on behalf of X, says: "I have no idea." 

Moss asks: "Would it be embarrassing for it to be publicly clear he entered a false date of birth and that's how he was able to access that material?" 

Khananisho says, "I don't think their decision is based on embarrassment", before she's asked about whether the proximity between Rudakubana watching the video and launching the attack was a "concern to you and the corporation".  

"I don't know if I can speak to why he would look for a video like that," she says. 

Moss calls it a "nightmare scneario" that the firm had "fought" to keep the material online and within a very short space of time "a brutal attacker has watched the footage" through "your platform minutes before launching a murderous attack".  

"I don't know what he's thinking," says Khananisho, who adds she can't make the assumption that was a "trigger".  

The inquiry is back in session after a short lunch break.

The inquiry is taking a break for lunch now. 

Deanna Romina Khananisho, who is giving evidence on behalf of X, will continue answering questions when the inquiry resumes.