A teenager accused of killing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class for young children in the United Kingdom has been charged with possessing an al Qaeda training manual and ricin poison.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 18, already faces three murder charges, 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of knife possession, authorities said Tuesday. The new charges were filed under the country’s Terrorism Act, police said.
The poison and PDF study, “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The al Qaeda Training Manual,” were found during a search of Rudakubana’s home, police said.
A prison van believed to be transporting Axel Rudakubana, the 17-year-old charged in the murder of three young girls in a knife attack at a summer dance class, departs Liverpool City Magistrates Court in Liverpool, Britain, Aug. 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Tests later confirmed the substance found was ricin. The risk of exposure to the public was low, said Dr. Renu Bindra, a senior medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency.
“This information confirmed that there was no evidence that any victims, responders or members of the public were exposed to ricin either as part of the incident or afterwards,” Bindra said.
Rudakubana allegedly committed the July 29 stabbing spree that killed three girls — Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6 – and injured several others, in Southport, a town north of Liverpool.
Merseyside Police did not declare the events a terror incident because no motive has been determined, authorities said during a news conference in Liverpool.
(L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar were killed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event. The teen suspect faces numerous charges related to the slaying. (Merseyside Police)
“I recognize that these new charges may lead to speculation. The matter for which Axel Rudakubana has been charged under the Terrorism Act doesn’t require motive to be established,” said Chief Constable Serena Kennedy. “For a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established.”
For an act to be treated as terrorism by U.K. authorities, it must meet a series of legal tests drawn up more than two decades ago and laid out in the Terrorism Act of 2000, The Telegraph reported.
The incident must involve the use or threat of serious violence or serious damage to property, be designed to influence the government, to intimidate the public or a section of the public and be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause, according to the newspaper.
A police van burns as an unruly crowd clashed with police July 30, 2024, in Southport, northwest England, near where three girls were stabbed to death in a dance class. (Richard McCarthy/PA via AP)
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The attacks sparked widespread protests and riots across the country amid inaccurate reports the suspect was an asylum seeker.
Rudakubana was born in England to Rwandan parents. Despite being a minor at the time of the stabbings, a judge lifted restrictions that prevented the reporting of his name.