The older brother of the Southport killer has revealed he feared his sibling would kill their father and saw similarities between him and the ‘sociopath’ killer from the thriller film No Country For Old Men.
Axel Rudakubana, 17, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, when he went on the rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, in July last year.
An inquiry into the atrocity is today hearing from his brother Dion Rudakubana, who the media are legally prevented from publishing any photograph or voice recording of.
Dion, 21, told the inquiry his younger brother’s behaviour deteriorated and became more and more violent after he was expelled from mainstream education aged 13.
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He said that, from 2022, when Axel was 15, he started to fear that he might kill someone in the household.
He would smash plates and confronted his father, Alphonse, 49, prompting police to be called, Dion said. Although he said he could not remember whether Axel was armed with a knife or a bottle at the time.
The inquiry was shown messages Dion had sent to a friend describing how he was fearful his brother would hit him and become violent because he was talking late at night, which Axel didn’t like.
Dion said his younger brother reminded him of the fictional sociopathic murderer in the 2007 Hollywood film No Country for Old Men.
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana is pictured in a court artist sketch during his trial at Liverpool Crown Court last year
(L-R) Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were all murdered in the atrocity on July 29, 2024
The older brother of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana said he saw similarities between his sibling and the ‘sociopath’ killer Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men, as played by Javier Bardem (pictured)
In the movie, main character Anton Chigurth, played by Javier Bardem, murders 10 people.
‘I watched it recently and it concerned me’, Dion told the inquiry.
Counsel to the inquiry Richard Boyle said: ‘You describe that character as a sociopath and very close to what your brother was…that character kills 10 people over the course of the film.’
Dion replied: ‘Yes, that’s why it concerned me. I felt the threat was within the home, and even then nothing had ever come of it.’
He said he never went into his brother’s bedroom because of his ‘violent responses’ and stopped speaking to him altogether in the summer of 2023.
Dion, who had moved away to go to university the year before, said: ‘I was not home as much so didn’t engage in heavy conversations as I used to as often.
‘There was also a growing risk of him lashing out, so I was told by my parents to be careful.’
He said his brother’s ability to empathise with others ‘diminished’ overtime following his expulsion from The Range High School for taking knives into lessons, in October 2019. He said Axel became increasingly socially isolated, fearful and paranoid.
Deanna Romina Khananisho, head of global affairs at X, gives evidence at the Southport inquiry
Dion described his final interaction with his brother, in the summer of 2023, when Axel threw a metal bottle at him.
He said he managed to close the door to avoid being struck but agreed he could have been ‘seriously hurt.’
The inquiry also heard that there was a lot of ‘tension’ between Axel and his father and that the younger brother also stopped speaking to Mr Rudakubana a few months later.
Mr Boyle asked: ‘Who was AR speaking to at this time?’
‘My mum,’ Dion replied.
‘And no-one else,’ the barrister added.
‘That’s right,’ Dion added.
Dion said he was ‘scared’ to go to university, in September 2022, because his brother’s violent outbursts had become so bad.
He said he was never asked about his brother’s behaviour by social services, mental health workers or the police.
Asked whether he would have told them he feared Axel ‘might kill someone in his household,’ if they had done, Dion replied: ‘I wouldn’t have said it point blank (but) I would have explained I feared some disputes escalated.’
He also admitted he ‘didn’t think’ to tell anyone himself because the problem grew ‘gradually.’
‘When I went to university, I had less knowledge of what was going on, so I trusted my parents to have more knowledge, who were also in contact with those services,’ Dion added.
Elsewhere, the inquiry heard notes made after a visit to the family home by Lancashire County Council in August 2021, Sky News reported.
Axel was reported as saying his father Alphonse hit eight-year-olds, referring to himself, as well as his brother, Dion.
Alphonse however disputed these claims as ‘false’, but did admit to smacking the brothers with a slipper when they fought with one another.
Earlier, the inquiry heard from Deanna Romina Khananisho, head of global affairs at X who said it would be a ‘tyrannical overreach’ to take down a ‘horrific’ video of a bishop being stabbed that was watched by the Southport attacker moments before he set off on his murder spree.
Rudakubana watched the stabbing of Mar Mari Emmanuel, an Australian bishop who lost the sight in his eye after being repeatedly stabbed by an alleged teenage terrorist while live-streaming a sermon online, six minutes before he left home to carry out the atrocity.
Ms Khananisho told the public inquiry that, by chance, she happened to be watching that sermon in real time, last April, when the attack took place.
She admitted that the video depicted ‘horrific violence’ but insisted that was not a reason to erase it from X, formerly known as Twitter.
Asked by Nicholas Moss, KC, for the inquiry, whether allowing the footage to remain online ‘fuelled’ or promoted ‘violent and hateful entities,’ Ms Khananisho, who describes herself as a free speech warrior, said she viewed it differently.
‘I saw a miracle unfold that day,’ she said. ‘People saw a monster, I saw an angel protecting Mar Mari. Where people saw a helpless victim I saw many heroes, parishioners running to save him.’
She claimed the video clearly showed the bishop reaching through his parishioners, who had pinned the attacker to floor, to touch his head and pray for him.
Ms Khananisho said the video represented ‘hope, faith and forgiveness,’ adding: ‘I do watch that video, and I watch it for those reasons.
‘For you to take that away from me under the guise of safety, that isn’t justice, that’s tyrannical overreach.’
Rudakubana had several accounts on X, going by the handle Red_Lorry123, the inquiry heard.
He had by-passed X’s age verification process to access ‘sensitive’ or violent material, available only to over 18s, by simply lying about his date of birth.
Ms Khananisho admitted the firm had been forced to impose stricter regulations on age verification, requiring users to provide ‘live selfie’s’ or a Government-approved ID, since the introduction of the Online Safety Act, in December.
But she pointed out that any child ‘determined’ to watch violence online would find a way to do so.
‘Frankly, it wouldn’t matter how many protections we have in place, at the end of the day, if somebody is determined to find the content they would find the content on any platform,’ Ms Khananisho said.
The inquiry heard other social media giants quickly agreed to a Government request to remove the video of the bishop stabbing soon after the Southport attack, but X refused. There is no current legislation that could force them to comply.
Ms Khananisho insisted there was no ‘proof’ the video had been a trigger for Rudakubana’s attack and taking it down amounted to ‘censorship,’ which was ‘not something we stand for.’
‘I do not know what he (Rudakubana) was thinking…so I can’t make the assumption the video was a trigger,’ she added.
Mr Moss suggested that, by refusing to remove the video, X were putting the importance of free speech over that of the feelings of the deceased or injured girls.
Ms Khananisho, who revealed she originated from a ‘repressed’ country where people were ‘persecuted’ for their beliefs, replied: ‘The importance of free speech is literally the strong hold of all governments.
‘If you are asking me to limit those free rights because I’m emotionally responding to an horrific attack then we’d be limiting the rights of people every single day because every single day bad things happen, attacks happen. Personally, I don’t agree with that.’
Rudakubana was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 52 years, at Liverpool Crown Court, in January.
His parents are due to give evidence tomorrow.
The inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, continues.
