Deporting Axel Rudakubana’s parents won’t do much good |
Axel Rudakubana’s mother and father failed as parents – and they failed the three innocent girls who were murdered in the Southport attack. They could – and should – have prevented their son from going to the dance class where he killed those children. That is the verdict of the Southport Inquiry, which released its first report into the killings this week.
Others have gone further: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says Alphonse Rudakubana, Axel’s father, and his mother, Laetitia Muzayire, should be deported.
Rudakubana’s mother and father must shoulder some of the blame for failing to intervene. Yet those who condemn Rudakubana’s parents ought to stop and ask themselves what would they have done with a son like Axel Rudakubana?
Deporting Axel Rudakubana’s mother and father might make us feel better, but it will do nothing to face up to the failings that led to Southport
Deporting Axel Rudakubana’s mother and father might make us feel better, but it will do nothing to face up to the failings that led to Southport
Of course Rudakubana’s parents should have acted differently. Alphonse Rudakubana deliberately withheld evidence about what his son was up to. He knew about the knives and the ricin. He knew Axel Rudakubana was planning an attack. The Inquiry’s chair, Sir Adrian Fulford, says that ‘Axel Rudakubana’s parents (and particularly Alphonse) created significant obstructions to constructive engagement with Axel Rudakubana by the various agencies that were involved’.
Why didn’t they act?........