Axel Rudakubana’s dad regrets not telling police about machete delivered to his house before Southport killings

The father of Axel Rudakubana has said he regrets not calling the police after he accepted a delivery of a machete that his teenage son ordered.

His son, 17 at the time of the killings, had used a false name to have a machete delivered to his home in Old School Close, Banks, Lancashire – a little over a year before the attacks happened.

Axel is currently serving a minimum of 52 years in prison for murdering three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last July.

During the second day of the Southport Inquiry in Liverpool Town Hall today, Alphonse Rudakubana said: ‘I regret that I didn’t tell the police because if I had, what happened on July 29 wouldn’t have happened.

‘They would have come and checked everything.’

He described the delivered package as heavy and in the shape of a knife.

The inquiry heard that he did not talk to his son about it as he was ‘scared’ it would have ‘quickly escalated.’ Instead, he did not give Axel the package.

A second machete was delivered to the house in October 2023, but he could not say if it was him or his son who had accepted the delivery.

Axel had also ordered seeds, which his father was aware of, but only found out later that they were used to create deadly poison ricin – his mother also denied knowing about this during the inquiry.

When asked if he should have been more curious about the deliveries, he said: ‘I was a traumatised person. It wasn’t normal at all.’

The father told his wife they needed to ‘protect’ their child after stopping him from carrying out an attack a week before the Southport killings – the inquiry has heard.

Alphonse stopped Axel from getting into a taxi, fearing he was going out to attack his former school on July 22.

This incident was the first time in two years that Axel had left the house on his own.

Earlier that day, Axel asked his dad when his old school had its morning breaktime, to which his father explained they were due to break up for the holidays that day.

His son had a jerry can in the house and asked Alphonse to buy petrol but he refused.

He told the inquiry: ‘I was scared. I thought he wanted to use petrol to start a fire at Range High School.’

His dad managed to stop the taxi from taking Axel by offering the driver money as compensation for the lost fare.

In a police interview, Alphonse described his son telling him: ‘Next time if you stop me, there will be consequences,’ as they returned back into the house.

Now, more than a year after the murders, his father has said he cries all the time for the innocent victims.

He said: ‘I’d like to say my deepest sympathy, my condolences for their beautiful angels whose lives were taken away by my son, so I’m so desperately sorry to them and everyone else who’s been harmed.

‘Two days ago, I was crying after the accounts Dion gave, but I was also crying for them, I cry for them all the time because I have a reminder of) my son who turned out to be a monster.’

He added: ‘I’m so ashamed I lost the courage to save their little angels.’

The parents of the three victims have ‘complete disdain’ for the answers the father has said today, the probe has heard.

Nicholas Bowen KC said: ‘All three parents have listened to what you have written, they have listened to what you have said and they have complete disdain for your excuses and the manner in which you have answered questions from Mr Moss.’

Mr Bowen was then cut off by the inquiry chair who said the comment was not appropriate.

Axel’s mother Laetitia Muzayire has also spoken at the inquiry today about her ‘grief and remorse for the children whose lives were taken or forever changed’ by her son.

Laetitia began her evidence with a statement from the family: ‘Each of us has come to the inquiry with broken hearts. There are no words that can ever be enough to express our grief and remorse for the children whose lives were taken or forever changed by our son’s actions.

‘We think of them every single day and we carry the weight of that loss in our hearts and prayers.

‘As a mother, I grieve deeply for my own son, but most of all for the innocent lives lost and the lives that have been devastated.

‘There are many things that Alphonse and I wish we had done differently.’

When questioned about why Axel’s time spent online was not monitored, she said that her and husband were ‘very busy’ with their lives and thought their sons would never look at bad things on the internet.

She also did not think Axel would be violent to people outside of the family, the inquiry heard.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the Southport inquiry, put to her that during a 64-page statement submitted to the probe, there was ‘no account’ of a ‘single time’ she directly challenged her son’s behavior.

This included when she did not talk to Axel about the dangers of carrying knives after he told Childline he had taken a knife to school.

Laetitia became tearful when asked about the knives kept in the family home.

She said: ‘I am very traumatised about knives. I hate knives, I hate anything to do with a knife.’

The live evidence for the hearings has concluded, said the Inquiry chairman, and his report is expected to be completed by next spring.

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