Fulford’s report on the Southport killings – more than 750 pages long – found that the killer, referred to as AR, “could and should” have been stopped if his parents and various state agencies had acted sooner.
It transpired during the inquiry that AR was referred to Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism programme, three times – beginning in October 2019 – with no further action taken.
Fulford’s core finding was that no state agency took responsibility for managing AR and his needs.
In response to a request for comment, the Home Office pointed us to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s response to the report on Monday.
She said: “There was a failure by the agencies involved to take responsibility and nobody was clear who was in charge.
“So the failure, because it belonged to everyone, belonged to no one.”
But is this really true?
In this piece, we examine Fulford’s report. We argue that it failed to properly scrutinise the failings of counter terrorism police after AR was reported to Prevent.
Read more on Middle East Eye.
