A teacher's desperate pleas for urgent help with Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana's autism assessment went unanswered by NHS services, a public inquiry heard on Tuesday. Lynsey Boggan, clinical lead of neurodevelopmental services at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, told the inquiry she could find no records of any response to the school's urgent requests.
Rudakubana faced a 45-week wait for his autism assessment appointment after being referred in November 2019, compared to the service's average waiting time of just eleven weeks. The significant delay occurred despite increasingly alarming warnings from his school about dangerous behaviour.
Teacher's urgent appeals ignored
Deputy head teacher Joanne Hodson from the Acorns School sent an urgent email on 22 November 2019, stating: "I really need some help with a referral for a young man who is presenting to us as ASD." She explained that Rudakubana had told Childline he had been taking a knife to Range High School in Formby, leading to his expulsion from that school.
Hodson described deeply concerning behaviour during Rudakubana's admissions meeting. "I asked him about the incident at his admissions meeting and he was monotone, emotionless and very matter of fact about his intentions," she told the service. The teacher reported that Rudakubana was fixating on another student whom he claimed was bullying him, though staff had seen no evidence to support this allegation.
Escalating warning signs
A follow-up email from Hodson on 3 December 2019 outlined further alarming incidents that would prove tragically prescient. These included Rudakubana asking a teacher for a picture of a severed head and speaking about people getting murdered.
The teacher also reported that during an ICT lesson, Rudakubana had searched for information about school shootings in America. When his father was informed of this search, he contacted the school claiming the report was untrue.
System failures acknowledged
When counsel Nicholas Moss KC asked whether the lack of any recorded response to the urgent emails was concerning, Boggan replied: "Yes, I would." She agreed that the emails should have triggered prioritisation of Rudakubana's case but acknowledged that no process existed at the time for expediting urgent referrals.
Boggan described the delay until July 2020 for an autism assessment appointment as a "marked shortcoming". She noted that whilst she was not working at Alder Hey when the emails were sent, the failure to respond represented a significant systemic problem.
Diagnosis and ongoing concerns
Rudakubana was finally diagnosed as autistic at a multi-disciplinary panel meeting on 30 December 2020, more than a year after the initial urgent referral. The inquiry heard that an assessment by the forensic child and adolescent mental health service was not completed because they were awaiting the autism referral results.
Boggan revealed she participated in a video call with Rudakubana and his father to explain the diagnosis. "I was aware that there were some incidents where he had harmed other people and I think that was why we went around it so sensitively in terms of how we delivered the news," she said.
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
