After the killing of young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event, mourners left tributes for victims of the knife attack in Southport (pictured in August). The British teen accused in the killing now faces new charges for alleged possession of terrorist training materials and producing the toxic poison ricin. File Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
The British teen accused of killing three young girls over the summer at a Taylor Swift-themed event now faces new charges for alleged possession of terrorist training materials and producing the toxic poison ricin.
Tuesday’s charges, police say, “relate to evidence obtained by Merseyside Police during searches” of the suspect’s residence. But the local police chief urged the public to be patient and not fuel rumors on social media. Advertisement
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, now 18, is due to appear virtually in court Wednesday on new charges of producing the deadly toxin ricin and allegedly processing an al-Queda training manual titled “Military studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants.”
“My plea is to be patient. Don’t engage in rumor speculation,” Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said Tuesday.
She said there’s now one charge for producing “a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974,” according to Kennedy. Advertisement
Rudakubana currently faces three murder counts, 10 attempted murder charges and one charge of knife possession. He will then have a Nov. 13 date at Liverpool ‘s crown court followed by a criminal trial in January.
Rudakubana is the 17-year-old suspect charged in July’s fatal stabbing of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, who was 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Britain’s east cost in the seaside town of Southport, roughly 20 miles north of Liverpool.
“Don’t believe everything you read on social media,” the chief warned. “We must not lose sight of the families of Elsie, Bebe and Alice, who are still grieving,” she added Tuesday.
The stabbing spree occurred on a Monday afternoon at a dance school. In addition, he wounded either other children and two adults — some of them critically.
The tragic killings led to a series of riots across Britain and the spread of disinformation about Rudakubana that ultimately all lead to more than 1,000 people getting charged for various crimes that took place across the country.
On Tuesday, some 2,000 British police officers were on stand-by as a precaution in anticipation of the announcement of new charges, The Guardian reported. Advertisement
Over the summer, the new Labor Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer had described violence after a vigil as having “hijacked” the solemn event.
The local judge, meanwhile, had decided to release the suspect’s name “in favor of the public interest in full reporting of these proceedings,” Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary had said.
The unrest occurred after politically far-right protesters clashed with police based on misinformation that a Muslim immigrant, and not a British citizen, had been arrested for the attack.
Meanwhile, the local Merseyside police chief says the attack has not officially been declared a “terrorist incident” and reiterated how Rudakubana is legally owed a fair trial.
The public, however, was still cautioned against further speculating on a motive.
“I recognize that the new charges may lead to speculation,” Kennedy said Tuesday.
The matter for which Rudakubana had been charged under Britain’s Terrorism Act of 2006, according to Kennedy, “does not require motive to be established.” For a matter to be declared, she continued, “:a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established.”
