A healthcare professional offered a £5 bet on what would happen to Axel Rudakubana during a meeting about his care five years before the Southport attack. The Southport Inquiry heard that John Hicklin, a clinical nurse specialist with the Forensic Child and Mental Health Service, made the comment at a multi-agency meeting in January 2020.
Rudakubana murdered three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29th July last year. Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died in the knife attack when the teenager was 17 years old.
Meeting details emerge
The meeting included deputy headteacher Joanne Hodson from Acorns School, the pupil referral unit Rudakubana attended after his expulsion from Range High School in Formby for bringing a knife. According to official notes, Hicklin said there was no "crystal ball" to show what Rudakubana would do and "he would offer a £5 bet to anyone who could say what was going to happen next".
Hicklin also reportedly told the meeting that Rudakubana clearly needed specialist provision "but, unfortunately you have been left holding the baby". The clinical nurse specialist later said the note lacked context, explaining: "This was about, I would say, thinking about the future and how we move on from an understanding of the risk to finding a way to kind of manage that in a community setting."
Service criticism
Amanda-Jayne Browne, head of operations at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, which operates the Forensic Child and Mental Health Service for the North West, criticised Hicklin's comments. She said: "They don't reflect the standards and values because they seem very flippant. They don't seem to acknowledge the gravity of the concerns and risks evident."
The inquiry heard that the FCAMHS closed Rudakubana's case in March 2020 because he was waiting for an autism diagnosis. Hicklin defended this decision, saying: "I felt that we were able to make some helpful and sensible recommendations about what would be necessary to manage the risk, and an ASD diagnosis was the main priority as that would further give some clarification to the risk."
Missed opportunities identified
Browne told the inquiry that a meeting of professionals should have been called before closing the case to ensure a "safe discharge". She said it would "absolutely" have been appropriate for Rudakubana to be referred back to the service following his formal autism diagnosis and other incidents.
When asked by Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, "How surprised are you that AR was not referred back to FCAHMS?", Browne responded: "There were many missed opportunities." She explained that had he been referred back, there would have been a comprehensive assessment bringing together information about "the violence and aggression and risk and extremism that was at play within this case".
Diagnosis delays revealed
Earlier testimony revealed significant delays in Rudakubana's autism assessment. He waited 45 weeks for an appointment after being referred to the community paediatric service in November 2019, despite the average waiting time being 11 weeks.
The inquiry continues on Wednesday at Liverpool Town Hall.
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
