The father of a teenager who murdered three young girls told a UK inquiry on Wednesday that his son assaulted him, frequently had violent outbursts, and once threatened to kill him.
Axel Rudakubana received a life sentence in January for fatally stabbing the girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England, last year. The attack sparked Britain’s worst riots in decades.
His father, Alphonse Rudakubana, who fled Rwanda after surviving the 1994 genocide, told the inquiry that his “beautiful boy” changed after being expelled from school in 2019 for carrying a knife.
“He used to beat me up,” Alphonse said before the inquiry, which is examining the events leading up to the July 2024 killings.
Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the stabbing spree, which Axel committed when he was still 17.
Speaking from an undisclosed remote location, Alphonse described his son’s violent “outbursts”, which sometimes occurred twice a day.
“It was much more frequent than when he was in full-time education,” he said.
In one disturbing incident, Axel poured oil over his father’s head before threatening him directly.
“He poked my chest and said: ‘If you get me out of here, this house, it may take a day, a week, maybe years — I will kill you, and trust me, I will kill you.’ He looked serious, and it was quite frightening for me,” Alphonse recalled.
He added that he and his wife reported some incidents to the authorities, including their son’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) team, but not all.
When asked why, Alphonse said he feared that social services might take his son away.
Earlier, Axel’s brother Dion told the inquiry their father had warned him to be “careful” around his younger brother just days before the attack.
The inquiry, chaired by a retired senior judge, has the power to compel witnesses to testify. While its recommendations are not legally binding, they could influence future government policy.