Families in Southport cannot be sure that officials who made \u201ccatastrophic\u201d errors before the murder of three girls are not still making the same mistakes, a former victims\u2019 commissioner has said.<\/p>\n
Vera Baird KC said all those who failed to properly monitor the killer, Axel Rudakubana, should be held \u201cpersonally accountable\u201d and that authorities must not \u201cshrug it off\u201d with an apology.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really is time for personal accountability,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have tragic failures many times followed by public inquiries but nobody actually has to stop doing what they\u2019re doing badly. I do not see why that should be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
A public inquiry into the atrocity concluded on Monday that Britain\u2019s multi-agency model had \u201ccompletely failed\u201d<\/a> to prevent the killing of Bebe King, six, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and the stabbing of 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in July 2024.<\/p>\n Adrian Fulford, the inquiry chair, condemned what he called an \u201cinappropriate merry-go-round\u201d of state bodies passing the buck and their \u201cfrankly depressing\u201d refusal to accept responsibility. \u201cThis culture has to end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Baird, a former MP and barrister, said: \u201cWhat you need to do is pinpoint exactly who didn\u2019t take the responsibility they should have done and take disciplinary action.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is all pointless if we don\u2019t make people accountable for the errors they made. You can\u2019t be sure, if you\u2019re living in Southport, that the people who made the mistakes won\u2019t be making the same mistakes again today.\u201d<\/p>\n The solicitor for the families of Bebe, Alice and Elsie said on Tuesday they were \u201caghast\u201d at the failings and that he was prepared to name the individuals responsible if the families were not satisfied that action had been taken.<\/p>\n Left to right: Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar. Photograph: Merseyside police\/PA<\/p>\n Chris Walker, of the law firm Bond Turner, told the BBC: \u201cThere are five particular state entities which are causing us most concern and we, frankly, find their behaviour unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n He said these were the counter-terrorism agency Prevent, Lancashire police, Lancashire social services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.<\/p>\n