Some outraged politicians are expressing that Axel Rudakubana’s 52-year imprisonment is insufficient and are pushing for a change in the law to ensure that he remains incarcerated until his death.
Despite being only 18 years old, Rudakubana will be serving over five decades in prison for the vicious and cruel murder of three young girls in Southport last summer, as well as attempting to murder eight others.
He was handed the massive sentence – one of the longest determinate terms in modern English legal history.
Due to the fact that he was 17 years old, just nine days shy of his 18th birthday, at the time of his violent acts, he was sentenced as a minor, even though the court heard disturbing accounts of the atrocities he committed.
It means he avoided a ‘whole life’ sentence keeping him in prison until he dies – though Mr Justice Goose said it was unlikely he will ever be freed.
After the sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court, Southport’s Labour MP Patrick Hurley said he had already asked the Attorney General to review the ‘unduly lenient’ term.
‘The sentence handed down today is not severe enough, it is not long enough for the crimes committed, we need a sentence that represents the severity of this crime that has terrorised the victims and their families,’ he said.
And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch threw her backing behind a law change that would allow killers aged under 18 to be handed whole-life sentences.
In a post on X, she said: ‘There is a strong case here for amending the law to give clear judicial discretion to award whole-life sentences to under 18s, which Conservatives will start to explore.’
Rudakubana’s minimum term is one of the highest on record and is thought to be the longest punishment handed to a killer of his age.
Mr Justice Goose detained the 18-year-old for life with a minimum term of 52 years.
Taking into account the 175 days he has already served on remand, Liverpool Crown Court heard this meant he will be required to serve 51 years and 190 days before he can be considered for release by the Parole Board.
And at that time he will still have to convince them he is not a danger to the public.
Manchester Arena bomber Hashem Abedi, 23, was handed a record-breaking 55-year minimum term in 2020 for 22 murders and attempted killings. The terrorist orchestrated the 2017 atrocity when he was 20.
Prior to that, the longest minimum term imposed on a terrorist in Britain is believed to have been 50 years in the case of David Copeland.
The 22-year-old was given six life sentences for targeting Brick Lane, Soho and Brixton in 1999 in a 13-day nail bombing campaign that left three people dead and 139 injured.
The Attorney General’s office said the case was referred under the unduly lenient sentence scheme – just one request is needed for it to be considered.
The law officers – Attorney General Lord Hermer and Solicitor General Lucy Rigby – have 28 days to decide whether to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
There is a high threshold for a successful reference under the scheme – the sentence must be deemed to be not just lenient but unduly so, for example if the judge has made an error or imposed a sentence outside the usual range associated with the circumstances of an offence.
Even then, the Court of Appeal may decide to refuse to review the case or uphold the existing sentence.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice called for a ‘national debate’ about the return of the death penalty in light of the Southport killings.
He told LBC radio: ‘I don’t think we should be afraid of having a national debate on important big issues like this.
‘I think that many people in the country would like at least a debate. People come to obviously very personal matters of conscience as to which way they would go.
‘Clearly this is probably the most exceptional that anybody can recall that I can think of. Let’s hope there isn’t a more exceptional.
‘And let’s hope we never live out through anything as horrific as this’
Fellow Reform MP Rupert Lowe also said now was the time for a ‘national debate on the use of the death penalty in exceptional circumstances’.
‘This is an exceptional circumstance,’ he added.
Former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman posted on X: ‘No sentence passed today will ever be enough.
‘Axel Rudakubana is an evil, heinous individual. I don’t support the death penalty, but this case seriously makes me think twice. Rotting in prison is too good for him.’
PM Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘The thoughts of the entire nation are with the families and everyone affected by the unimaginable horrors that unfolded in Southport. No words will ever be able to capture the depth of their pain.
‘I want to say directly to the survivors, families and community of Southport – you are not alone. We stand with you in your grief.
‘What happened in Southport was an atrocity and as the judge has stated, this vile offender will likely never be released.
‘After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve.’
Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, said there was ‘no doubt that there was a failure of the state’ in protecting Rudakubana’s victims.
‘The sentence handed to Axel Rudakubana with a minimum of 52 years means he is unlikely to ever be free but that will never fully compensate the victims and their families for the pain and loss they have experienced,’ she said.
‘He was well known to police, anti-extremism authorities and a number of other public agencies for his violent behaviour. Concerns by his parents were also ignored and overlooked.
‘Alarm bells had been ringing for many years. There can be no doubt that there was a failure of the state to protect these innocent children from Axel Rudakubana.
‘Tragically it’s too late for these victims, these families and survivors and so we need action now to stop further attacks by dangerous people already known to multiple agencies.
‘We must intervene as early as possible to stop preventable crimes that destroy lives and communities.’
