The family of Bebe King, one of the three girls killed in the Southport attack last year, have urged ministers to reconsider their support for disclosing the ethnicity of serious crime suspects, saying this information is “completely irrelevant” and that “the propensity to commit crime happens in any ethnicity, nationality or race”.
Bebe was six when she was murdered by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, a Welsh-born black Briton from a Christian family who had lived in the local area for a number of years.
In the knife attack at a dance class on 29 July 2024, he also killed Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and injured 10 others, some of whom will never fully recover physically from their injuries.
Michael Weston King, Bebe’s grandfather, told the Guardian that in the aftermath of the tragedy the family were failed by the “despicable” actions of the far right, who “tried to make political gain from our tragedy”.
He urged the government to reconsider following in the footsteps of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party on backing disclosing the race and immigration status of high-profile suspects – which became official police guidance on Wednesday, despite criticism from anti-racism campaigners and women’s groups.
“This apparent kowtowing to the likes of Farage and Reform, who surely want such a policy in place, is extremely disappointing, though perhaps not surprising,” Weston King said.
“I not only speak for myself but for all of the King family when I say that the ethnicity of any perpetrator, or indeed their immigration status, is completely irrelevant. Mental health issues, and the propensity to commit crime, happens in any ethnicity, nationality or race.
“The boy who took Bebe had been failed by various organisations, who were aware of his behaviour, and by the previous government’s lack of investment in [the official anti-extremism strategy] Prevent . As a result, we were also failed by this.”
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, welcomed new police guidelines released on Wednesday, which encourage forces to release the race and nationality of those charged in high-profile cases.
The new guidelines follow a row over claims police “covered up” that two men charged in connection with the alleged rape of a child in the Warwickshire town of Nuneaton were asylum seekers. This led to a far-right rally in the town during an anti-immigration protest, in which attenders wore clothing with Nazi imagery and speakers told a crowd the “far right must unite”.
Weston King said that in the aftermath of the attack the family “were failed further, by the likes of Reform and the right wing, as they tried to make political gain from our tragedy, only causing further misery to us and others, which was despicable”.
The first of a number of riots erupted last summer at a vigil for the murdered children in Southport, after days of online misinformation about the suspect, including a rumour he was an asylum seeker with a Muslim name.
In a rare move that aimed to prevent further riots in towns and cities across the UK, a judge publicly named the underage Rudakubana, who was then only a week from his 18th birthday.
However, it failed to stop rioting in which mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers were attacked and, in some cases, people of colour targeted indiscriminately.
It was only after the first prison sentences were handed down to rioters that the violence abated.
Weston King said: “Though we are not interested in retribution or revenge, we were glad to see that the rioters, along with those who spread lies and hatred online, received prison sentences.
“I very much hope that the mood and opinion of the nation is in keeping with ours, and that this plan does not go ahead.”
Weston King said though he had been a Labour supporter all his life and was “delighted to have seen the back of the Tories after 14 years of misrule, it is with a heavy heart that I acknowledge some of Starmer’s recent decisions”, not least over Palestine.