Jonny HumphriesNorth West
A psychiatrist said he was unaware the Southport killer had previously been caught carrying a knife, despite the fact it was recorded in medical notes, a public inquiry has been told.
Anthony Molyneux took on Axel Rudakubana as a patient from July 2022 and discharged him in April 2024, three months before the then 17-year-old murdered three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.
He said he had “no suspicion” that information, plus further disturbing references to the teenager’s obsession with violence, was recorded in patient notes and “would not have gone looking” for it.
Asked if he had “failed in his duty” to check them more thoroughly, he said: “I don’t accept that submission.”
Dr Molyneux, neurodevelopmental lead at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, told the Southport Inquiry he had taken a verbal handover from Rudakubana’s previous psychiatrist, Dr Lakshmi Ramasubramanian.
Giving evidence at Liverpool Town Hall, Dr Molyneux said: “I believe that I took reasonable steps to glean a reasonable level of assurance from the notes and the verbal handover I had.”
On 29 July 2024, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King were fatally attacked by the knifeman.
Ten others, including eight children, were seriously injured.
Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January.
Under questioning from Nicholas Moss KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, Dr Molyneux said he had not read the reference to a March 2022 incident in which Rudakubana’s parents had reported him missing.
Lancashire Police later found him on a bus where he admitted he had a knife and had wanted to stab people.
The inquiry heard the teenager’s file also contained a reference to an incident in December 2019 when Rudakubana attacked a pupil at the Range High School in Formby with a hockey stick, having been permanently excluded a few weeks earlier.
And there was reference to another incident in 2019, when teachers had noted that Rudakubana had researched the 2017 Manchester Arena suicide bombing and referred to it as a “good battle”.
Dr Molyneux said he was unaware at the time he was treating Rudakubana and found the bombing comment “particularly chilling”.
Mr Moss suggested that the system within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) at Alder Hey for “keeping track of risk information” was “very poor”.
“I would say it should have been better, and we have since taken steps to improve it,” Dr Molyneux said.
He also suggested when he did home visits with Rudakubana’s family, his parents did not mention any violence or risk to others.
He also said he was aware that the teenager had been referred to the anti-extremism service Prevent, but believed the service had concluded there was “nothing to see here”.
Mr Moss asked if it would have been important for Dr Molyneux to be aware of the risk information referred to in the notes.
“Of course, I think it’s crucial someone in my position ought to know those things at the time,” the doctor replied.
Mr Moss suggested his treatment would be “deeply flawed” without knowledge of such matters.
Dr Molyneux said: “Let’s just say it would be a significant blind spot.”
He said the teenager came across as an “unremarkable, sullen, untalkative, gawky teenage boy” during their sessions together.
The psychiatrist said he did ask Rudakubana about whether he had thoughts of harming others, which the teenager denied.
Without any evidence to contradict him, he said he took the teenager’s answers “at face value”.
The inquiry continues.
