Southport killer’s teacher ‘dreaded’ what he might do

A teacher at a specialist school where the Southport killer was sent after he was expelled told an inquiry how she had a “visceral sense of dread” he would use a knife in school.

Joanne Hodson, of The Acorns School in Lancashire, told a public inquiry she felt like staff were “left holding the baby” as other agencies “peeled away” when she begged for help with Axel Rudakubana’s disturbing behaviour.

Ms Hodson, who is now head teacher at the Ormskirk school, said: “I felt like something was going to happen and there was a level of agitation with direct challenges to staff, the way he was with other pupils.

“I felt like every day it was building and building and building.”

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Rudakubana, then 17, killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder eight other children and two adults at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on 29 July last year.

The Southport Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall heard back in October 2019 he was expelled from mainstream education at The Range High School in Formby after calling Childine and telling a call handler he had taken a knife to school.

Ms Hodson described a “memorable” first admissions meeting with him at The Acorns when she asked why he had carried a knife in his former school.

She said: “He looked me in the eyes and said ‘to use it’.

“This is the only time in my career that a pupil has said this to me or behaved in a manner so devoid of any remorse.

“What also surprised me was that [his] parents did not flinch at this comment.”

Ms Hodson said his parents appeared to believe he had taken the knife in to school as a response to being bullied.

She told the inquiry: “He saw himself and his parents saw him as the victim of the incident rather than the perpetrator.”

She said Rudakubana was the “most unusual” pupil she had experienced during her career.

“There was a sinister undertone and it was difficult to build rapport,” she wrote in a statement.

“He had no respect for authority and generally a lack of respect of other pupils and staff.”

The inquiry heard in December 2019, while he was enrolled at The Acorns, he returned to the Range school and attacked another student with a hockey stick – while also carrying a knife in a backpack.

After his arrest his bail conditions meant he could not return to The Acorns until he had a “multi-agency risk assessment”.

Ms Hodson said she had “very significant” concerns about the risk he would pose to other pupils and staff if he returned.

However, she felt resistance from other agencies, and said: “I felt they all took a step back and passed the risk to us, their solution was ‘you’ve got to take him back’.

“The police peeled away, social services said they didn’t think there was a risk, and we were literally left holding the baby.”

She recalled a meeting attended by the specialist Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (FCAMHS), designed for youths considered at risk of causing harm to others.

At that meeting FCAMHS nurse John Hicklin made a comment about placing a £5 bet with anyone who could predict what Rudakubana would do next.

Ms Hodson said she felt “ganged up on” in that meeting and like she and her school had been left to deal with the problem on their own.

From January 2021, she said she became concerned Rudakubana’s father was fearful of his son and had “lost control” of him.

The inquiry continues.