Louis Browne KC delivers Opening Statement on behalf of Sefton Council at Southport Public Inquiry

September 22, 2025

Louis Browne KC from Exchange Chambers delivered the Opening Statement on behalf of Sefton Council at the Southport Public Inquiry last week.

On the 29 July 2024, Axel Rudakubana carried out a knife attack at a children’s dance club in Southport. He murdered 3 young girls, Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King, and injured 10 other people. Sixteen others survived the attack but live with the serious emotional scars.

The Southport Inquiry has been set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack and the events leading up to it. This will include examining an overall timeline of the perpetrator’s history and interactions with various public bodies including criminal justice, education, social care, and healthcare, as well as decision-making and information-sharing by local services and agencies.

The Inquiry began formally on 7 April 2025 when the Home Secretary issued the Terms of Reference.

Delivering the Opening Statement on behalf of Sefton Council, Louis Browne KC said that the “perpetrator of these unspeakable crimes has rightly caused revulsion across the entire country” and that the thoughts of all at Sefton and within the borough of Sefton continue to be with the families.

Louis Browne KC explained that in order to play its part as fully as possible, Sefton Council actively sought and were granted core participant status.  He concluded by saying that Sefton will engage with the Inquiry to the fullest extent while looking to “contribute to and implement any learning that may prevent such an awful tragedy from ever happening again”.