Axel Rudakubana should have been considered a terror threat - damning review in Prevent reveals major errors

The report, published today, concluded counter-terrorism officers were wrong to not escalate his case as a potential terror threat.

It also found there was enough evidence for Prevent officers to refer Rudakubana to the next stage of the scheme, called Channel, which aims to divert individuals from being radicalised.

Security minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons: "The perpetrator was referred to Prevent three times between December 2019 when he was aged 13 and April 2021 when he was 14. Those referrals were made by his schools.

"The first referral reported concerns about him carrying a knife and searching for school shootings on the internet. The second referral was focused on his online activity relating to Libya and Gaddafi. His third referral was for searching for London bombings, the IRA and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"On each of these occasions, the decision at the time was that the perpetrator should not progress to the channel multi-agency process. But the Prevent learning review found that there was sufficient risk for the perpetrator to have been managed through Prevent.

"It found that the referral was closed prematurely, and there was sufficient concern to keep the case active while further information was collected."

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Jarvis also confirmed the Prevent learning review into the 2021 killing of Southend West Conservative MP Sir David Amess will be released to the public next week.

He said: "Transparency and enabling public scrutiny is also fundamental, and that is why we will take steps to publish the findings of other independent Prevent learning reviews where there has been an incident of national significance.

"Next week we will publish the Prevent learning review into the appalling attack into Sir David Amess, to enable further public scrutiny of this important programme."

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for the inquiry into Rudakubana to consider his past mental health interventions, asking Home Office minister Dan Jarvis to "confirm that it will be a statutory inquiry".

He said: "That is important so it has powers to compel witnesses to attend, take evidence under oath, and obtain documents. It is vital we get to the truth about the opportunities which may have existed to stop Rudakubana committing these sickening murders."

Jarvis told the Commons Rudakubana was interested in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 that killed 22 people, and had talked to others about stabbing people.

He added that too much emphasis was put on a lack of an ideology behind Rudakubana’s interests, which meant he was not put further through the Prevent programme.

The Security Minister said: "The review concluded that too much focus was placed on the absence of a distinct ideology, to the detriment of considering the perpetrator’s susceptibility, grievances and complex needs. There was an under-exploration of the significance of his repeat referrals, and the cumulative risk, including his history of violence."

He continued: "The overall conclusion of the review is that he should have been case managed through the channel multi-agency process, rather than closed to Prevent. This would have enabled co-ordinated multi-agency risk management and support."