Police and British Prime Minister accused of double standards as suspect who killed three girls faces terrorism charges

LONDON– Merseyside Police in England were forced to admit last month that police were “prohibited” from sharing vital information about the Southport attack in July, in which three young girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, because the suspect Attackers now face terror-related charges.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 18, faces the new charges under the country’s terrorism law in addition to existing three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of knife possession, authorities said last week. Rudakubana is alleged to have committed the stabbing attack on July 29 that left three girls – Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6 – dead and several others injured.

Police said the suspect manufactured the deadly poison ricin during a search of the suspect’s property and was carrying al-Qaeda training materials titled “Military Studies in Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual.” Police did not classify the events as a terrorist incident because no motive could be determined, authorities added.

SUSPECT IN UNITED KINGDOM APPEARS ON 3 GIRLS FOUND WITH RICIN AND AL-QAEDA MATERIAL AND CHARGED UNDER TERRORISM LAW

“We received comprehensive advice from the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] in terms of what we can say publicly to ensure the integrity of the judicial process is protected and therefore we are limited in what we can now say to you while the process is ongoing,” Merseyside Police said in a statement to allay criticism that police “choose to hide things from the public.”

These revelations about the terrorism allegations sparked a firestorm over the secretive and double standards of police and government behavior following the deadly attack in Southport, a town north of Liverpool, in July.

“I think the idea was that they didn’t want to interfere with the process. And I think motive will be an important issue in the trial and they didn’t want to release any information about the suspect that would suggest his motive,” Toby Young, the director of the Free Speech Union in the United Kingdom, told Fox News Digital .

But Young added that there is “some sort of double standard when it comes to the information released about attackers in these circumstances,” as the government and authorities would likely have been more forthcoming if the attacker was “a far-right white supremacist.” would have been.”

The rampage led to widespread unrest across England, while speculation arose about the attacker’s background and the nature of the attack. In response, several people were charged and detained over online comments that the court deemed inciting the unrest.

Last month, Lucy Connolly, the wife of a local Conservative Party politician, was sentenced to more than 31 months in prison for posting inflammatory posts on social media against asylum seekers, according to authorities.

Wayne O’Rourke, who had an “You did not get involved in the actions of others, you instigated them,” said the judge when announcing the sentence. “The flames that keyboard warriors like you ignite.”

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But while police gave few details about the incident, saying they were not interfering with the trial, left-wing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was quick to criticize those involved in the riots as “right-wing extremists.”

Winston Marshall, host of The Winston Marshall Show, told Fox News Digital: “Prime Minister Starmer has been careful not to interfere with the trial of Axel Rudakubana following new charges of possession of Islamist literature and ricin.”

The British podcast host noted: “But we, the British public, still remember how Starmer branded the August rioters “far-right thugs” almost immediately and before any of them were convicted. It is precisely this behavior for which he is rightly and bitterly mocked as “Two-Tier Keir”.

“Keir Starmer did not hesitate to describe the rioters, some of whom had been arrested and were in custody, as right-wing extremists, so he did not hesitate to speculate about the motives of the people who had been arrested for rioting, even if that was easily possible Their trials also left biases and not all of them pleaded guilty,” Young said.

“Calling someone who has been arrested and charged but pleads not guilty a criminal also potentially means damaging the outcome of their trial. The point is not to extend the presumption of innocence to them. . . This signals to potential jurors that the Home Office, and therefore the Home Secretary, believes they are guilty,” he added.

Right-wing Reform Party leader Nigel Farage was heavily condemned by a cross-party group of senior Conservative and left-wing figures and accused of inciting unrest after he questioned the lack of information being made available to the public.

“I just wonder if the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that, but I think it’s a fair and legitimate question,” Farage said after the attack, going on to question whether the suspect was known to and monitored by the country’s security services. Farage also questioned why the incident had not been classified as terrorist.

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Neil Basu, former counter-terrorism police chief from 2018 to 2021, hinted that Farage could face an investigation over these comments, accusing the politician of “undermining the police, creating conspiracy theories and creating a false basis for… to deliver the attacks to the police.”

Conservative peer Lord Barwell, a former MP and chief of staff to former Prime Minister Theresa May, called Farage “completely disgraceful” for spreading “misinformation” on social media after the attack.

“He is an MP. If he had questions he could have asked them in the House of Commons yesterday – but he wasn’t there. Instead, he prefers to encourage those who spread misinformation here [social media]. Absolutely disgraceful.”

But the latest police statement and the new terrorism allegations have somewhat exonerated the critics. “Maybe I was right all along,” Farage said in a video posted to X last week.

Farage wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he and his party colleagues were banned from asking questions in Parliament about the Southport attack because they feared it could prejudice publicity during the suspect’s trial.

Farage said authorities had told him he was not allowed to raise the matter in Parliament after he submitted a written question to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper asking whether the accused attacker had ever been involved in the counter-terrorism initiative was expelled from the country.

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“You can’t conclude anything other than that the state apparatus is being used to deal with this situation,” Farage said. “So at the moment it seems that no one is allowed to ask in the proper forum when the government first knew that the defendant was facing ricin and terrorism charges.

He added: “Similarly, no one can know whether this man was in any way known to the authorities. Do we really want to live in a society where such important information is withheld from the public? Who decided that these details should remain secret?

Police and prosecutors have still not revealed to the public whether the accused attacker was ever known to the country’s security and counterterrorism authorities.

The suspected attacker was born in Wales to Rwandan parents, police later said. British media reported that he was raised as a Christian. The trial on murder charges is expected to take place in January.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.