Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been charged with multiple assaults on prison staff.
Axel Rudakubana, the 19-year-old convicted of murdering three young girls in the Southport attack, has been charged with a series of offences against prison officers at HMP Belmarsh.
According to reports, Rudakubana faces two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, one count of attempted grievous bodily harm, and one count of unauthorised possession of an offensive weapon in prison. The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 6 May and 28 October 2025.
Assault on an emergency worker on Tuesday, 6
May, 2025; attempted grievous bodily harm on Thursday, 8 May, 2025; unauthorised possession of an offensive weapon in prison on Thursday, 26 June, 2025, and assault on an emergency worker on Tuesday, 28 October, 2025.
He will appear before Westminster Magistrates'
Court via video link on 11th September.
The charges relate to the period when he was held at the high-security Category A prison in south-east London.
Background to the Southport murders
On 29 July 2024, Rudakubana, then 17, carried out a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space in Southport. He murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, Bebe King, 6, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9. Eight other children and two adults — dance class instructor Leanne Lucas and local businessman Jonathan Hayes — were also seriously injured.
He pleaded guilty in January 2025 to three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and related offences including the production of ricin and possession of a document useful for terrorism (an Al-Qaeda training manual). He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years. The judge noted that a whole-life order could not be imposed because Rudakubana was under 18 at the time of the attack, though he is considered highly unlikely ever to be released.
Prison history and previous incident
Following his conviction, Rudakubana was held at HMP Belmarsh. In May 2025, he was alleged to have attacked a prison officer by throwing boiling water heated in a kettle through the hatch of his cell door. The officer was taken to hospital as a precaution and discharged the same day. The Prison Service stated at the time that violence against staff would not be tolerated and that the strongest possible punishments would be sought.
His privileges were subsequently reduced to the minimum legal entitlements.
In late July 2026, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that Rudakubana had been transferred from Belmarsh to Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric facility in Berkshire, following an independent clinical assessment under the Mental Health Act. Officials stressed that the move does not alter his 52-year sentence and that he will be returned to prison when no longer considered to require hospital treatment. The transfer has drawn criticism from victims’ families and some prison staff representatives, who have questioned whether it represents an attempt to “manipulate the system.”
The new charges cover the period Rudakubana spent at Belmarsh before that transfer.
Further details on the specific incidents underlying the charges have not yet been publicly released. The case remains ongoing.
