Southport inquiry latest: Killer's dad 'desperately sorry' - and accepts 'share of responsibility'

The criminal investigation showed Axel Rudakubana had images of mutilated bodies, torture, cartoons mocking Islam, antisemitic material, Nazi mass graves and material demeaning to women and girls. 

His father Alphonse tells the inquiry he wasn't aware of the material and was "100%" sure he didn't hear his son talking about any of those topics at home, where there were "no secrets". 

"There was another side to him I didn't know," he says. 

Alphonse Rudakubana  is now being asked about his son's three referrals to the government's counter-terrorism Prevent programme. 

He was called to a meeting at The Acorns School in Lancashire over concerns about his internet searches and conversations. 

They included a search for school shootings, and talk about guns and decapitations.  

Notes from the meeting record his dad "didn't feel he was a danger to himself or others" and never lied. 

He also said the school was "like a prison" and asked to see recorded evidence of what his son had said.

'Naive'

Alphonse says he now accepts he was "very naive" and now sees his reaction in the meeting wasn't appropriate.

He says he didn't know the officers who visited the family home in January 2020 were counter-terrorism officers. 

Alphonse says "I had lost control, I had no authority as a father". 

He says "I was reduced to somebody who feeds him, does all he asks",  adding: "I had no power to stop him from accessing anything he wanted online."

After a brief break, we're back under way. Stay with us for the rest of this afternoon's evidence.

Axel Rudakubana's dad was asked about an attack his son carried out on 11 December 2019 - two months after he was expelled from school. 

He attacked a boy in the corridor with a hockey stick, while carrying a knife in his bag and said he intended to stab and kill someone. 

The inquiry hears police "threatened to arrest" Alphonse because of his response as he remonstrated with officers who brought his son home in handcuffs. 

"I don't remember behaving that way," says the killer's father.  

Asked what effect - that in the face of serious criminal misbehaviour his response was to attack police - that would've had on his son, Alphonse again disagrees that he behaved in that way and asks to see the bodyworn footage.

Axel Rudakubana was expelled in October 2019 after admitting to Childline he was carrying a knife to school and was having thoughts about using it to attack someone he said was bullying him. 

The inquiry hears his father phoned up to complain about a breach of confidentiality. 

Lawyer to the inquiry Nicholas Moss suggests this was part of a "pattern of behaviour", where instead of helping people trying to deal with his son's indiscipline and violence, Alphonse "went on the attack and sought to undermine them". 

Alphonse says "we were hurting" and wanted help and were "desperate". 

He's asked about comments a teacher made that he and his wife "didn't flinch" when their son said he planned to use the knife. 

Alphonse says they were "anguished, shocked and ashamed". 

"We sent a beautiful boy" to the Range High School in Formby, Merseyside, he says.

"By the time they sent him back he was broken, disappointed, traumatised, changed completely beyond belief," he adds. 

The inquiry hears Axel Rudakubana received a delivery of a machete in June 2023. 

In his written statement, his father says he didn't confront him "because he would fly into a rage" and had threatened to kill him by that time. 

Alphonse says his son had never used weapons against him, but "would throw things at me". 

He suggests Axel's brother Dion was "exaggerating" in messages sent to a friend about fears his father would be killed (see our 11.25 post for more on that).

But Alphonse says he "cried" when hearing his son Dion's evidence yesterday, adding: "We never discussed it as a family and asked him how he felt".

The inquiry hears he did take steps to seek support, including paying for private counselling sessions in 2019, having parenting sessions the following year and seeking financial assistance from the local authority. 

Alphonse Rudakubana admits smacking his two sons on the bottom when they had been naughty. 

But he denies ever responding with violence to Axel's behaviour between 2018 and the attack on 29 July last year, apart from during one incident in January 2021. 

The inquiry hears Axel got upset about his father mowing the lawn where his pet hamster was buried, leading to him threatening to break his laptop and kicking Alphonse in the privates.

Alphonse says he retaliated to the assault by slapping his son in the face, but did not disclose this to police. 

Counsel for the inquiry Nicholas Moss KC suggests it shows Alphonse is capable of being "less than honest" at times. 

He says "that's a big conclusion" to reach from one incident a long time ago. 

In his written witness statement, Alphonse Rudakubana says he was "frightened" of his son, which "prevented him from doing things a parent would normally do", such as restricting internet activity and ordering weapons online.

"This had catastrophic consequences for which I'm desperately sorry," he says. 

"I accept I bear my share of the responsibility and that by not challenging his behaviour he was allowed to acquire dangerous weapons and view inappropriate content online."

Alphonse is challenged by the lawyer to the inquiry Nicholas Moss KC on why he didn't take the "simple measure" of putting on parental controls set on the home Wi-Fi network. 

Moss says Axel accessed "vile" and "gory violent material of the most degrading kind". 

Alphonse says he didn't, explaining he thought "my boys were accessing normal things" and "we were not concerned at all".  

Moss said people might consider his answer "absurd", given he knew Axel's school was concerned he had been looking at school shootings and showing interest in guns. 

Alphonse says he didn't put restrictions on his son's internet access because he wouldn't be able to "manage his destructive behaviour".

Alphonse Rudakubana is asked about an incident in May 2022, involving the flooding of the bath in the house and an argument about Axel's access to his dad's laptop. 

Police were called to the house and officers recorded Axel's parents were "struggling to cope" and had agreed to contact Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMH) and the GP. 

Lawyer for the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, then turns to early 2024 - when his father described some of his behaviour as "very frightening". 

The inquiry heard he poured a whole bottle of oil over his head and threatened to kill him in "very menacing terms". 

"When he poured the oil over me... his eyes were watery, red," he said, adding he had some kind of mental "anguish" or "pain".

He says his son told him: "If you get me out of this house... it may take a day, it may take a week, it may be a month, maybe years... trust me I will kill you". 

He looked serious and it was "actually quite frightening", he says.

The hearing has started again after the lunch break, with the Southport attacker's father Alphonse Rudakubana continuing to give evidence.