In July 2024, a tragic attack in Southport claimed the lives of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Alice da Silva Aguiar and irreparably harmed the local community.

Almost two years later, an inquiry has been published to try to understand what led Axel Rudakubana to commit these crimes.

In this episode, our hosts are joined by Professor Lynn Davies, ConnectFutures, and Selina Wallis, University of Liverpool, to discuss the many missed opportunities to prevent the attacks.

We cover how a teenager known to services could fall through the cracks, the changing landscape of extremism in the face of unfettered internet access, and much more.

Professor Lynn Davies

Emeritus Professor of International Education at the University of Birmingham, and Director of social enterprise ConnectFutures.

See Lynn’s University of Birmingham profile: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/education/davies-lynn

Read the Manchester Arena Inquiry, for which Lynn acted as an Expert Witness: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/manchester-arena-inquiry-reports

Selina Wallis

Public involvement and co-production lead in applied health research at the University of Liverpool, including work connected to NIHR ARC North West Coast.

See Selina’s University of Liverpool profile: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/selina-wallis

Read the Safe by Default Substack: https://saferbydefault.substack.com/p/after-prevent-after-southport

Read about the Preventing Mixed Forms of Extremism project: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/sociology-social-policy-and-criminology/research/research-projects/preventing-mixed-forms-of-extremism/

Further resources

• Read the Southport Inquiry: Phase 1 report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-southport-inquiry-phase-1-report

• ‘Known to services’ or ‘Known by professionals’: Relationality at the core of trauma-informed responses to extra-familial harm: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740924001671
  

Transform Justice

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BlueSky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@transformjustice.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠policy@transformjustice.org.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Transform Justice podcast is hosted by Penelope Gibbs and Rob Allen and produced and edited by Alexandra Kimmons.