U.K. inquiry lays bare ‘catastrophic’ missed chances before stabbings at dance class

A mass killing by a British teenager who fatally stabbed three girls and seriously wounded 10 other people at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in 2024 “could and should have been prevented” if his parents and state agencies had acted as his well-known fixation on violence escalated, according to a report released Monday.

Adrian Fulford, a retired judge who led a nine-week inquiry, issued a 763-page report that cataloged the many times parents or authorities could have intervened in Axel Rudakubana’s life to ultimately prevent him from carrying out killings that he said were unprecedented in the U.K. for their “extreme and very particular depravity.”

“One of the most striking conclusions from this inquiry’s extensive investigation is the sheer number of missed opportunities over many years to intervene meaningfully, which directly contributed to the failure to avert this disaster,” Fulford said. “The consequences were catastrophic.”

Rudakubana, who was 17 when he carried the attack in northwestern England, is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 52 years for killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, and wounding eight children and two adults.

Read more: NPR