Southport ‘attacker’ charged with having al-Qaeda manual and making ricin

SUMMARY

Eighteen-year-old Axel Rudakubana has been charged under the Terrorism Act for possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual and manufacturing the deadly poison ricin. Rudakubana is already facing murder charges for the stabbing deaths of three young girls—Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7), and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9)—during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29. Following the attack, police searched his home, where they discovered a PDF of the manual titled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants along with ricin, a potent biological toxin. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy stated that the July 29 incident has not been officially labeled a terrorist act since no motive has been established, even though the attack involved the murder of three young girls. The legal definitions under the UK Terrorism Act require proving that an act was intended to further a political, religious, or ideological cause, which remains challenging in this case.