Knife attack in UK claimed lives of three girls, including Portuguese Alice da Silva Aguiar
There has been outrage and disgust in England following the admission, months on from the attack, that the ‘Southport killer’ whose knife rampage claimed the life of three little girls, including Portuguese Alice da Silva Aguiar, did in fact have links with Islamic fundamentalism.
After all the attempts to paint Axel Rudakubana as “a young man from Cardiff”; “British born” and with no apparent connection to terrorism, it has transpired that he is now being charged under the Terrorism Act (after all), for producing the biological toxin ricin and having a document titled “Military studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants – the al-Qaida training manual”.
His murder of three innocent children, however, continues ‘not to be considered a terrorist incident’. Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of Merseyside police, maintains there is no evidence pointing to a terrorist motive…
As Allison Pearson of the Telegraph stresses, in her article: “We deserve to know the full truth about the Southport massacre”, “police must surely have discovered what appeared to be ricin at Rudakubana’s home quite rapidly, and presumably informed the Home Secretary. Why was that important information not made public?”
This was an horrific incident that “felt alien and extreme and full of horrifying, blood-curdling hatred” from the outset – and over which many “sensed we weren’t being given the full picture”.
Now, the picture is opening up a little – showing that people’s initial misgivings were, in fact, well founded – and making a mockery of the form in which a number were so publicly punished by authorities, even being sent to jail.
Whatever motivated the clamp-down on people’s questions appears to be still in effect, suggests Pearson: “three months later, we still have not heard from relatives of Elsie, Bebe or Alice; their grief is private, of course, but is it possible that they have been instructed not to talk in case people get stirred up and upset again?” she questions.
It has not taken long for the new revelations to become a political football, with contenders for the Conservative Party leadership now accusing the government of deliberately concealing information from the public.
“We were told for months that this was not a terror-related incident, and yet we have learnt that this individual, the suspect, was allegedly reading al-Qaeda manuals and had access to dangerous substances like ricin,” said Robert Jenrick.
“Given the scale of public interest, I think it is an important question to be asked, why was this information not put into the public domain sooner? So I’m asking the public authorities and the prime minister, what did they know, when did they learn it, and why was the decision taken not to be more honest and transparent with the public.”
For now, Rudakubana has appeared before magistrates to hear these new charges, and has refused to speak.
