Axel Rudakubana, the 18-year-old accused of murdering three girls at a dance class in Southport, has appeared in court on new charges of possessing terrorist material and producing the toxin ricin.
He appeared at Westminster magistrates court via video link from HMP Belmarsh. He sat holding his sweater over the bottom half of his face.
He did not respond when asked to confirm his name, and a security officer with him at the prison told the court he had chosen not to speak.
Stan Reiz KC, defending, said: “Mr Rudakubana has remained silent at previous hearings as well. For reasons of his own he has chosen not to answer the question.”
He will next appear at Liverpool crown court on 13 November for a plea hearing on three counts of murder, accused of killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. He also faces 10 charges of attempted murder for alleged attacks on a further eight children and two adults.
Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, made an application for the new charges to be linked to others he is facing over the stabbing in Southport.
She said: “The crown’s application would be for both of those matters to be sent directly to Liverpool crown court to link up with those matters.”
Judge Goldspring remanded Rudakubana in custody on the new charges.
During the hearing, the chief magistrate Paul Goldspring addressed the defendant, asking whether he would nod to signal his understanding, but he did not react.
Rudakubana was arrested on 29 July shortly after a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in the first week of the school summer holiday.
On Tuesday, Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of Merseyside police, said the killings of Alice, Bebe and Elsie were not being treated as a terrorist incident. She said no evidence pointing to a terrorist motive had been discovered.
Kennedy said the new charges followed a “lengthy and complex” three-month investigation, and she made a plea for people not to speculate about the alleged offences.
Ricin was said to have been discovered at Rudakubana’s home in the village of Banks, about 5 miles from Southport, in early August, days after the attack. Kennedy said there was no evidence that ricin was present at Hart Space, the scene of the knife attack, and that counter-terrorism police had “not declared the events of 29 July as a terrorist incident”.
She said: “At this time, counter-terrorism policing has not declared the attack on Monday 29 July a terrorist incident. I recognise that the new charges may lead to speculation.
“The matter for which Axel Rudakubana has been charged with under the Terrorism Act does not require motive to be established. For a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established.”
She said counter-terrorism officers were continuing to assess the evidence and that the full case against Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, would be disclosed at the criminal trial, planned for January.
