Southport suspect charged with terror offence and producing ricin

The suspect accused of murdering three girls in Southport was also charged with possessing terrorist material and producing the highly toxic poison ricin, police announced yesterday.

- Vikram Dodd Josh Halliday Kiran Stacey

Axel Rudakubana, 18, will appear at Westminster magistrates court today charged with producing ricin and possessing a document titled "Military studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants - the al-Qaida training manual".

Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of Merseyside police, said the murder of the three girls - Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven - was not being treated as a terrorist incident. She said no evidence pointing to a terrorist motive had been discovered. Rudakubana was arrested on 29 July shortly after a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in the first week of the school summer holiday.

As well as three murder charges, he is also charged with 10 attempted murders for alleged attacks on eight children and two adults.

He is also charged with possessing a bladed article.

At a press conference at Merseyside police headquarters yesterday, Kennedy said the new charges followed a "lengthy and complex" three-month investigation, and she pleaded with people not to speculate about the alleged offences.

The ricin, a potentially lethal toxin, was discovered at Rudakubana's home in the village of Banks, about five miles from Southport, in early August, days after the attack.

She said there was no evidence that ricin was present at Hart Space, the scene of the knife attack, and that counter-terrorism police had "not declared the events of 29 July as a terrorist incident".

Kennedy said: "At this time, Counter Terrorism Policing has not declared the attack on Monday 29 July a terrorist incident. I recognise that the new charges may lead to speculation. The matter for which Axel Rudakubana has been charged with under the Terrorism Act does not require motive to be established. For a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established."