Inquiry should be free to seek answers without ‘ridiculous nonsense’ online – MP

Inquiry teams looking at the Southport attack should be free to complete their probe without “nonsense” online, the town’s MP has said.

Patrick Hurley warned that speculation by “public figures who should know better” could have caused a jury trial to collapse, if murderer Axel Rudakubana had not admitted to all charges.

But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for more “openness and transparency” from the Government, which he claimed could have helped combat disinformation “which arguably fuelled the riots” last summer.

Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls – Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, last July.

Mr Hurley told MPs on Tuesday: “It’s been another tough week for my Southport constituency, I’m sure members across the House will appreciate.”

The Labour MP added: “I was clear back in the summer that I did not want people speculating online as to the motives or the background of the person that we can now say was the murderer of those three girls.”

He warned that “the trial could have collapsed because of that speculation, because it wasn’t just speculation but also in some respect downright lies – and downright lies that were being circulated in the interests of gaining political gain for themselves, with the interests of justice a distant second”.

Mr Hurley said “the public inquiry should also be allowed to undertake its work and make its recommendations free of the ridiculous nonsense and lies that we’ve seen from public figures who should know better circulating purely for their own interests”.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who has announced an inquiry, replied: “It is part of our British justice traditions that information is produced at the trial but not in advance for fear of prejudicing a jury, and then for undermining justice and potentially letting criminals walk free.

“He is right that we should never do that but he is also right that his community and people across Southport particularly the families involved need now to get answers and the answers that they need about how on earth this shocking, shocking and disturbing, barbaric attack could have been able to happen.

“What went wrong? What could have been done to prevent it?

“But also, how we as a society face up to the rising youth violence and extremism that we have seen, this being just one example of some very disturbing cases.”

Ms Cooper later told the Commons: “The scale of the growing obsession with violence should be a serious concern to us, because you do think ‘what are we allowing to happen to our kids and to our teenagers if we’ve seen this kind of obsession grow’?”

In addition to murder, Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, admitted the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

He further pleaded guilty to possessing a knife on the date of the attack, production of a biological toxin, ricin, on or before July 29, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

Mr Philp told the Commons that the police made public his charges related to ricin and a terrorist manual.

“So, if it can be made public in October, without risking prejudice of the murder trial, it follows that it could have been made public in August, without prejudicing that same trial,” he said.

The shadow home secretary said “it is vital to get to the truth” and added: “Does she accept there should and could have been more openness and transparency, as I just set out, without prejudicing the trial and that disclosing more of that truth, openly and transparently, would have helped combat the damaging misinformation that circulated and which arguably fuelled the riots?”

Ms Cooper referred to the 2021 murder of Sir David Amess, the former MP for Southend West, and said: “Let me point out to him that the previous Conservative government did not publish information before the trial about the Prevent referral for the perpetrator who killed Sir David Amess.

“None of us criticised them for that, because none of us wanted to put at risk justice for Sir David’s family.”

The Cabinet minister warned that if she had ignored advice about publishing Prevent referrals “and if as a result a killer had walked free, no-one would ever have forgiven the Government or anyone else”.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle described the period before Rudakubana’s trial as “one of the most frustrating periods” for MPs, who were previously subject to a sub judice resolution, which blocks MPs from referring to impending court cases.

He waived the sub judice rule ahead of a sentencing on Thursday and added: “I am now going to ensure that the House sub judice resolution is revised and reviewed to ensure that it is fit for purpose ongoing.”