Why wasn't the Southport attack stopped?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last year’s attack on a dance class in Southport killed three young girls and injured a further eight, as well as two adults. The teenager responsible, Axel Rudakubana, has since been sentenced to a minimum 52 years. But a public inquiry is still trying to understand whether it would have been possible to prevent the horrific event.
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Guest: Constance Kampfner, northern correspondent, The Times.
Host: Luke Jones.
Producer: Edward Drummond.
Read more:
- Axel Rudakubana’s father ‘was too scared to challenge him’
- Southport killer’s brother ‘feared he would kill a family member’
Clips: Southport Inquiry, Times Radio, The Times.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:09.8 | This is Times Radio. |
| 0:12.7 | Thank you, Carolyn. Some breaking news in the last half an hour. |
| 0:15.7 | Merseyside police say they're dealing with a major incident in Southport. |
| 0:19.6 | There have been reports of a stabbing, |
| 0:21.3 | and police say there are a number of reported casualties. |
| 0:25.7 | What made 17-year-old Axel Ruder-Gabana |
| 0:29.0 | stabbed to death three young children in Southport last summer |
| 0:33.2 | and injure many more? |
| 0:36.6 | It sparked riots in Southport. |
| 0:39.3 | Get back, get back, get back, get diligently working out to find out why he did it. |
| 1:11.0 | And why mental health services, social services, the police, the anti-radicalisation programme |
| 1:15.7 | prevent, and more, did not realise he was capable of such an attack. |
| 1:20.1 | What occurred on that day has made it critically necessary, moreover, to identify all the changes that need to be implemented |
| 1:30.8 | in order to ensure, as best as our society is able, that there is no repetition. |
| 1:41.8 | The first part of the inquiry has now finished. |
| 1:51.0 | The story today, why wasn't the Southport attack prevented. |
| 2:15.6 | Constance Campfner is Northern correspondent for The Times and she has been recently spending a lot of time in one particular room in Liverpool |
| 2:19.7 | Town Hall. In this grand wood-panelled room. It's where the Southport inquiry has been taking |
| 2:27.8 | place. The press and the lawyers of the inquiry all sit around on these kind of plush red benches and on one side that's us and the lawyers with inquiry all sit around on these kind of plush red benches. |
| 2:35.3 | And on one side, that's us and the lawyers for all the core participants. |
| 2:40.8 | And then there's a big black curtain that divides the room |
... |
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