Starmer announces inquiry into Southport girls’ murder that sparked wave of racism in summer

Keir Starmer has learned quickly in just half a year in office that in a world dominated by social networks he must act before it is too late. The British Prime Minister announced this Tuesday the launch of an official investigation into the murder of the three Southport girls last summer, which unleashed a wave of racist and xenophobic violence in various cities in the United Kingdom. Axel Rudakubana, 18, made a surprise admission yesterday of his guilt in the first minutes of the trial that began in Liverpool. The twist of the script put an end to a process that was expected to be long and painful for the victims, but opened a thunderstorm for the current Labor Government, which once again exposed itself to the accusation of having launched a conspiracy of silence. It was no longer necessary to preserve sensitive information about the confessed murderer, known to the authorities but hidden from public opinion to prevent the trial from ending up annulled.

For example, those responsible for education or social services notified the anti-terrorist prevention service at least three times, between 2019 and 2021. Preventalerted by the violent and threatening attitudes that the minor had displayed. Obsessed by historical figures such as Genghis Khan or Adolf Hitler, or by the techniques deployed by the terrorist organization IRA, Rudakubana had a special fixation with violence, and had called the child care service to warn of his intention to go to school armed. with a knife.

Current British legislation requires ideological or religious reasons to classify any plan or preparatory act as terrorist, so the police did not consider the activities and threats of the minor, born in Cardiff and son of Christian Rwandan parents, from that perspective. Beyond his obsession with violence, no one detected, for example, signs of Islamist extremism. Although the police revealed, last December, that among the material seized in his room was an Al Qaeda training manual.

“Terrorism has changed. In the past, the predominant threat came from highly organized groups with a clear political intent, such as Al Qaeda. And that threat still exists,” Starmer explained. “But now we see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms who have access to all kinds of material on the Internet, and who are desperate for notoriety. Sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups. But normally obsessed with extreme violence simply because,” denounced the prime minister.

The Labor Government has put lawyer David Anderson, an expert in anti-terrorist legislation, at the head of the official investigation. He will also be the new person in charge of the program Prevent.

Accusations against the Government

The leader of Reform UK, the populist politician Nigel Farage, again accused the Government of having hidden information from citizens, shortly after new information about Rudakubana’s activities and past was released. “We need an apology from the Minister of the Interior and an explanation of why we were denied the most basic truth.” [sobre los asesinatos]”said Farage. “I believe that the Government is responsible for an impressive conspiracy of silence,” he concluded his accusation.

These same suspicions at the time encouraged the episodes of street violence in the streets of the United Kingdom after the murder, with far-right groups encouraged and directed from social networks, who launched themselves in search of immigrants. The rumor, then, suggested that the alleged murderer was a Muslim asylum seeker. The judge was forced to reveal Rudakubana’s personal data to stop the spiral of violence.

And the same accusation of covering up the truth flooded the networks a few weeks ago, promoted by Elon Musk, regarding the pedophile gangs that terrorized the north of England a little over a decade ago, made up mostly of British citizens of Pakistani origin.

Starmer has had to explain again why information about the Southport killer was not made public. “The only ones who would have been losers in this story, if the details had been revealed, would have been the victims and their families, because we ran the risk that the entire process would have ended up annulled. And I would never have done that, because they deserved justice,” he explained.

The Prime Minister has assured that the Southport case has drawn “a line in the sand”, and has committed to changing British legislation in accordance with the recommendations arising from the commission of inquiry created.