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Southport
killer Axel Rudakubana moved to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital
Exclusive:
Clinical assessments concluded Rudakubana could not be safely managed in
prison, sources say
Rajeev
Syal Home affairs editor
Thu 23
Jul 2026 18.51 BST
The
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been moved from prison to a psychiatric
hospital after clinical assessment, the Guardian can disclose.
He was
transferred to Broadmoor high-security hospital from the category A prison
Belmarsh this week after it was concluded that he could not be managed safely
in a prison environment, sources confirmed.
People in
psychiatric units such as Broadmoor are treated as patients rather than
prisoners. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said he would remain locked up
and is unlikely to ever be released.
The move
is likely to anger many of the families of his victims, who will argue he was
assessed as fit to stand trial in January 2025.
It means
the cost of his incarceration will rise. Costs for patients in hospital secure
units are more than £300,000 each a year, compared with about £60,000 for
prisoners, Whitehall sources said.
Rudakubana,
19, from Banks, Lancashire, was jailed for life in January 2025, with a minimum
sentence of 52 years, for the “sadistic” murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven,
Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.
He
attacked eight other children, the class instructor Leanne Lucas, and
businessman John Hayes, who had tried to disarm him at a Taylor Swift-themed
dance class on 29 July 2024 in Southport. He was also found guilty of producing
the biological toxin ricin and of possessing an al-Qaida training manual, an
offence under the Terrorism Act.
Alder Hey
children’s NHS foundation trust confirmed Rudakubana had been under its care as
a mental health patient between 2019 and 2023, when he “stopped engaging”. He
was referred to them after taking a knife to school and later saying he had
done so “to use it”.
He was
also referred to the UK’s counter-extremism programme, Prevent, because he had
been researching school massacres on a computer at his next school, the Acorns.
There
were two other referrals to Prevent, but none were progressed as Rudakubana had
no clear ideology behind his obsession with violence.
In May
2025, Rudakubana attacked a prison officer with boiling water, sparking an
internal inquiry at Belmarsh.
Responding
to the move to Broadmoor, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the POA union,
which represents prison, correctional, and secure psychiatric workers, said his
members believed he was “playing the system” so he could move to a more
comfortable environment.
He said:
“[Rudakubana] is not mentally unwell. He is playing the system and is nothing
more than evil. He should spend his entire sentence in solitary confinement
staring at four walls.
“It is
appalling to think that he will now enjoy all the freedoms a secure hospital is
forced to give him and even more unjustified is the taxpayer actually paying
him benefits because he is now classed as mentally unwell.
“It is
POA members who will now have to carry out the wishes of those who think he can
be cured. This is a sickening development and my thoughts are with the families
of the victims and all those who have been affected by his atrocious crime.”
Broadmoor,
in Crowthorne, Berkshire, is the oldest of England’s three high security
psychiatric hospitals. It has been used to hold some of the UK’s most notorious
murderers, including Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.
Patients
remain locked up, with conditions heavily regulated by strict physical security
including locked wards, monitored by staff and 24-hour CCTV. They receive
mandatory therapeutic and rehabilitative programmes. If offenders no longer
require treatment in hospital, the 1983 Mental Health Act provides for a swift
return to prison.
If an
offender presents an increased risk and cannot be managed safely in a prison
environment because of a mental disorder, a request to be moved to a secure
psychiatric unit can be made by clinical professionals.
Sources
said the act and the clinical assessments meant ministers had no choice but to
accept the request to transfer the prisoner in this instance.
A
Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The families of those murdered and
injured in Southport will be in this country’s heart for ever and our thoughts
remain with them.
“The
offender who carried out these vile crimes will rightly spend the entirety of
his 52-year custodial sentence locked up, and is unlikely to ever be released.
“High
secure hospitals are not places of freedom. He will remain under constant
supervision in a high-security psychiatric unit, and be returned to prison as
soon as possible.
“The
transfer of an offender follows a robust independent clinical assessment.”
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