Southport suspect Axel Rudakubana was named to stamp out ‘idiotic rioting’- but it takes more to stop thugs, says expert
NAMING the Southport attack suspect won’t be enough to stop rioting thugs, an expert has said.
Criminologist David Wilson said mobs are fuelled by fake information about the suspect’s background being spread online.
Riots erupted in several major UK cities this week after three girls aged six, seven and nine were knifed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Following the horror, rampant “fake news” started spreading on social media about the nationality and immigration status of the alleged attacker.
Yesterday, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was named as the teen charged with murder. He was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
Usually, any defendant aged under 18 is entitled to anonymity but Judge Andrew Menary KC declined to make such an order.
He said “idiotic rioting” in parts of the UK after the attack was one reason why it was in the public interest for his name to be released.
But expert criminologist David says naming him – and in turn making it so his picture can be shared – won’t stop thugs taking to the streets, as they’re fuelled by a far more sinister agenda.
More than a dozen protests are planned for the coming days, with promotional material online for some calling for participants to bring England flags.
A number contain phrases such as “enough is enough”, “save our kids” or “stop the boats”.
David told the Sun: “All the things the rioters think they know about the suspect just don’t exist. But it won’t stop them.
“It’s about what has happened being used for other agendas rather than what has happened in Southport itself.”
Thugs fought with cops in Southport outside a mosque following the horror attack on Monday night.
And in London, 100 people were arrested after clashes erupted in Whitehall.
The horror that took place on Monday at a Merseyside holiday dance class left three innocent schoolgirls dead and five more still fighting for their lives.
False information about the suspect – including a fake claim that he was an asylum seeker, when in reality he was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents – fuelled the rioting this week.
The stabbing suspect was remanded in custody during a five-minute appearance at Liverpool magistrate’s court on Thursday.
David said: “Remember we now know he wasn’t an asylum seeker, he didn’t come over on a boat, his family had been integrated into the community for some time.”
The academic, who was once a prison governor, slammed social media companies for what he believes is their failure to tackle the spread of fake news, inflaming the issue.
He told The Sun: “How do we make X, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok – how do we make all those sites take responsibility for what they publish?
“You as The Sun would have to take responsibility for what you print, but they don’t seem to abide by the same regulation.
“Very early on, within a matter of a few hours, I was being [tagged in social media posts].
“Because I’m a criminologist – I have connections with various people – I was being told what has happened and who had done it and what his background was.
“Within a few hours I saw social media, especially X, saying things about the event and the culprit which were at some considerable distance from what I understood to be true.
“The more one looked at a lot of the social media comment that was swirling, it was like people were shouting in the void.
“The more one looked at what they were saying it was quite clear that was not just speculation but quite deliberate misinformation being propagated as a way of making a completely different agenda from the tragedy that had clearly happened.”
He added that he had been told “very early on” a number of false things about the attack.
He also became aware of an incorrect theory that the suspect was a recent asylum seeker.
Despite social media claims, cops have stressed that the suspect was born in Cardiff.
David said: “It seemed to me this was an attempt to weaponise what happened in Southport for a political agenda rather than acknowledge there was a tragedy ongoing in Southport.”
He added that a site he is aware of was publishing “nonsense” about the incident, but the problem was that he could not say “what I knew to be true”.
David said: ” I’m bound by ethical reasons and journalists and mainstream media are governed by different rules.
“I don’t think there is enough self-regulation by social media companies, I think there has to be some intervention so social media companies are more regulated about the spread of disinformation.
“It is quite clear that the spread of disinformation is the reason we have seen so much constant problems within Southport post the attacks on the little girls.
“One regularly gets people shouting into the void – not talking to each other.”
The 17-year-old suspect is accused of murdering Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.
He allegedly wounded another eight children and two adults during the frenzied attack that has sparked an outpouring of grief in Southport and across the nation.
On Tuesday night, bricks were thrown at a mosque and 53 police officers were injured.
Police blamed members of the far-right English Defence League.
The protests spread on Wednesday, including to Downing Street.
In Hartlepool, demonstrators set police cars on fire and threw objects at the officers, with police saying eight arrests were made.
Hartlepool police said officers faced having “missiles, glass bottles and eggs being thrown at them, with several suffering minor injuries.”