Of all the professionals who studied Axel Rudakubana before his murderous attack in Southport last summer, the notes of a rookie police officer in 2019 may be the most prescient.
The actions of Rudakubana, then aged 13, showed “potential for huge escalation”, wrote PC Alex McNamee after spending just 20 minutes with the teenager when he admitted taking a knife to school to attack a bully. The risk, he wrote, was “high”.
