Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was under the care of an NHS mental health service for about four years before he “stopped engaging”, a hospital trust has said.

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust confirmed he had been under their care between 2019 and 2023.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was jailed for 52 years for the “sadistic” murders of three young girls, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.

A spokesperson for Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said it “welcomed an independent public inquiry” into the failures to identify the risk posed by the teenager.

The statement added that Rudakubana, from Banks in west Lancashire, had stopped engaging with the service in February 2023, despite continued offers of support.

The spokesperson added: “Following the terrible incident last July, we are participating fully in a children’s safeguarding practice review commissioned by the Children’s Safeguarding Partnership, to identify if any learnings could be made.”

The trust said it would “welcome the announcement of an independent public inquiry and will fully co-operate and support that process”.

“We are not in a position to provide any further details that could potentially prejudice that inquiry and will be making no further comment at this time,” they added.

The trust said its thoughts remained with the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie and all those affected by the events of 29 July.

On Thursday Rudakubana was sentenced to jail with a minimum term of 52 years for three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder, one of producing the biological toxin ricin and one of possession of an Al Qaeda training manual, an offence under the Terrorism Act.

Axel Rudakubana was first referred to Alder Hey’s mental health services after taking a knife to Range High School in Formby and later saying that he had done so “to use it”.

He was also referred to the counter-extremism programme Prevent because he had been researching school massacres on a computer at his next school, The Acorns.

There were two other referrals to Prevent, but none of them were progressed as Rudakubana had no clear ideology behind his obsession with violence.

Lancashire Police also had several interactions with Rudakubana, including one occasion in March 2022 when he was found on a bus with a knife.

His mother had also been warned to secure the knives in their house.

• How the Southport attack unfolded
• Me and my girls were easy prey, says Southport survivor
• Girl, 14, tells Rudakubana ‘you looked possessed’

The inquiry into the Southport killings has also been supported by the families of three men murdered in Reading, Berkshire.

The three men were stabbed to death by Khairi Saadallah in Forbury Gardens, Reading, in June 2020.

The families of James Furlong, David Wails and Joe Ritchie-Bennett said they feared lessons had not been learned and were demanding more government action.

Saadallah and Rudakubana had both been referred to the government’s anti-extremism Prevent programme.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the inquiry would be given all the powers it needed to assess whether red flags were missed.

The BBC has approached the Home Office and Department for Health and Social Care for comment.

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