"It's frustrating but it's the law:" Why Southport attacker details have only just emerged | LBC

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met chief, joined Nick Ferrari in the LBC studio to take questions on the Southport murders carried out by Axel Rudakubana.

Sir Mark Rowley was asked to clarify whether the stabbing, which left three dead and 10 injured, was classed as an act of terrorism.

Sir Mark Rowley admitted: “Not on the law as it is today, no."

"That’s what police decided, CPS decided,” he said, highlighting that "changes are needed" when it comes to the categorisation of crime.

The Met chief also touched on the lack of information fed to the public by police in the wake of the attack - which contributed to widespread misinformation and subsequent riots.

He highlighted that the UK has some of the strictest contempt of court laws anywhere in the world, adding the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has to ensure that trials are fair and not subject to prejudice.

"It is frustrating," he admitted, "but it is the law".

"In our legal system… there is a risk it would have undermined the trial."

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was sentenced to 52 years behind bars on Thursday.

Ahead of sentencing, it was revealed the teenager had been referred to the government's anti-terror organisation Prevent on three separate occasions over violent material accessed online.

Following the attacks, a slew of extremist material was found to have been accessed using the teen's electronic devices - including terrorism manuals, extremist videos of school shootings and research on the Rwandan genocide.

Asked by Nick whether anti-extremism organisation Prevent was fit for purpose, the commissioner said: “Lots of people looked at him and weren’t able to get their hands round him.”

“The Prevent programme does lots of good work," he insisted, admitting that on this occasion "the system has failed".

“The Prevent officers didn’t feel this was a case for them. The system has failed,” he reiterated.

“We're never going to stop every young violent man. We need to be as good as possible at it, and there are too many men, young men, online, obsessing about this violent material."

Nick went on to quote the words of Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, asking Sir Mark about strict CPS rules that saw local police effectively gagged where information was concerned.

"Since day one, we’ve wanted to say much more to show we are being open, but we’ve been advised throughout that we can’t by the CPS," Nick quoted.

Sir Mark conceded: "It is frustrating, but it is the law".

Sir Mark Rowley admitted that more needed to be done where transparency is concerned.

"In our legal system… there is a risk it would have undermined the trial.

"I completely share Serena Kennedy’s sentiment… I think it would be great if we can have changes that mean information can be shared earlier…. "

He added: "We need changes."

Reflecting on the "horrific" material many teens are accessing, he said many are "grazing on" a diet of "beheadings" and "terrorist ideology" over the internet.

Listen to the full show on Global Player

#nickferrari #southportattack #southport #axelrudakubana #news #crime #police #uk #uknews #LBC

LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK.

Join in the conversation and listen at

Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here