Merseyside police chief announces retirement

The Merseyside police chief who led the force following the attack on a Southport dance class has announced her retirement.

Serena Kennedy will retire from the force at the end of August to spend more time with her family after facing “some of the greatest challenges Merseyside has encountered” during her time as its first female chief constable, she said on Thursday.

On July 29 last year, Axel Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.

In the wake of the attack, violent disorder broke out in the town and across the country.

Last month, Ms Kennedy told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee she had wanted to dispel misinformation in the immediate aftermath of the murders by releasing information over Rudakubana’s religion but was told not to by crown prosecutors.

In a statement released on Thursday, she said: “I have said in the past that the decisions we make in policing should always have our communities at their very heart … and that is what I am doing in this moment.

“The time is right for someone new to bring their vision and ideas to Merseyside Police, and build on the work we have all done.”

Ms Kennedy was in charge of the force in 2022 when nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was fatally shot by drug dealer Thomas Cashman.

Olivia was one of four female victims to gun crime that year, along with Ashley Dale, 28, 53-year-old Jacqueline Rutter and Elle Edwards, 26, who was shot outside a pub in Wirral on Christmas Eve.

Ms Kennedy also presided over the policing operation when the city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 and when Emad Al Swealmeen detonated a bomb outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital in November 2021.

Ms Kennedy said: “We have faced some of the greatest challenges Merseyside has encountered, but we have faced them together as a force.

“We have dealt with high-profile incidents which have had a huge impact on our communities and families, including the Covid pandemic, the bombing at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital; the murders of Sam Rimmer, Ashley Dale, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Jackie Rutter and Elle Edwards in 2022; and the murders of Bebe, Elsie and Alice and the attempted murders of eight other children and two adults at the Hart Space in Southport last year.”

Merseyside Police Commissioner Emily Spurrell said: “Since becoming the first female chief constable to lead Merseyside Police in 2021, Serena has been a credit to both the force and our region serving our communities with unwavering courage, integrity, and dedication.

“She has been an exemplary leader. From the awful events in Southport, to the complex investigations into the murders of Olivia, Ashley and Elle, and the resulting prosecutions.

“To the bombing outside the women’s hospital, and the vastly successful policing operation during Eurovision, Serena’s professionalism and drive to do what’s right for our communities has never waned throughout what has been, arguably, the most extraordinary and challenging time Merseyside Police has ever faced.”

The process of appointing Ms Kennedy’s successor will begin later this month, a force spokesman said.