Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana admitted murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class
Keir Starmer has warned that Britain faces a "new threat" as terrorism evolves from organised groups to lone actors radicalised through online content.
Speaking the day after Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana admitted murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, The Prime Minister said: "Throughout this case, up to this point, we have only been focussed on justice.
"If this trial had collapsed because I or anyone else had revealed crucial details while police were investigating, while the case was being built, while we were awaiting a verdict, then the vile individual who committed these crimes would have walked away a free man.
“The prospect of justice destroyed for the victims and their families. I would never do that and nobody would ever forgive me if I had. That is why the law of this country forbade me or anyone else from disclosing details sooner.
“None the less, it is now time for those questions and the first of those is whether this was a terrorist attack.
“The blunt truth here is that this case is a sign Britain now faces a new threat. Terrorism has changed. In the past the predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent, groups like Al Qaeda.
“That threat of course remains, but now alongside that we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake.”
