The boy who murdered three girls in the UK at a Taylor Swift dance was charged Wednesday with a terrorism offence, two months after he had already been charged with murdering the girls.
According to the new indictment, Axel Rudakovana, 18, who was 17 at the time of the stabbing attack in Southport last July, prepared ricin-type poison and had a "training instructor" from the al-Qaeda terrorist group.
But even now, the police refuse to define the stabbing attack as a terrorist attack, stressing that it is still not possible to determine the killer's motive when he began the killing spree.
The stabbing attack took place on July 29 at a community center in Southport in northwest England, a city of 100,000 near Liverpool. It was the first week of the summer holidays, when Rudakubana, who was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants and reportedly raised as a Christian, went on a stabbing spree.
There were about 25 children in the workshop, and the attack killed 6-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguier. Eight other children and two adults were injured.
Immediately after the gruesome murder, far-right activists rioted in Southport following false claims circulating on social media that the killer was a Muslim immigrant who had infiltrated by boat. Police were quick to refute the allegations and clarify that the killer was a native of Britain, but the riots spread to other cities across England and Northern Ireland, where rioters tried to target Muslims and migrant reception centres.
The fact that it has now been revealed that the murderer was in possession of jihadist materials in his home is drawing criticism from right-wing elements, claiming that this information was allegedly hidden from the public in the period after the attack. The criticism also stems from the fact that at the time the police claimed that there was no suspicion of a terrorist motive.
