Southport Killer Charged With Assaulting Prison Staff While Serving Life Sentence

LONDON: Axel Rudakubana, the teenager serving a life sentence for the 2024 murder of three young girls in Southport, has been charged with multiple offences related to alleged attacks on prison staff while incarcerated at HMP Belmarsh, British police said on Friday.

Rudakubana, now 19, is accused of attempted grievous bodily harm, assaulting emergency workers, and possessing an offensive weapon inside the high-security prison. The charges stem from a series of alleged incidents that occurred between May and June 2025 while he was serving his sentence.

He is currently serving a minimum term of 52 years after pleading guilty to the July 2024 knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England. The attack claimed the lives of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, while injuring 10 other people and triggering days of riots across the United Kingdom.

Police said Rudakubana is scheduled to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video link on September 11 to face the new charges.

The latest development follows his recent transfer from HMP Belmarsh to Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital. The move sparked criticism from the victims’ families, who argued that it caused additional distress and questioned the justification for the transfer, while authorities maintained it was based on clinical assessments and security considerations.