COUNTER-extremism cops THREE TIMES closed investigations on the Southport killer even though he was caught carrying knives and googling mass shootings.
A damning report today lays bare the horrific failings of the Prevent programme to stop Axel Rudakubana ahead of last summer's attack - and he was obsessed with the Manchester Arena bombing.
A separate review of the entire scheme is being conducted to see how it can stop more atrocities.
Twisted Rudakubana was last month jailed for at least 52 years for the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, to death on July 29.
He was fascinated by the bombing in 2016 which killed 22 people.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said today that the killer was reported to Prevent three times but not referred for further monitoring.
He added too much emphasis was put on a lack of an ideology behind Rudakubana’s interests, which meant he was not put further through the Prevent programme.
He told MPs: "Perpetrator was referred to prevent three times between December 2019 when he was aged 13, and April 2021 when he was 14.
"Those referrals were made by his schools. The first referral reported concerns about them carrying a knife and searching for school shootings on the internet.
"The second referral was focused on his online activity relating to Libya and Gadaffi.
"His third referral was for searching for London bombings the IRA and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
"On each of these occasions, the decision at the time the perpetrator should not progress to the channel multi agency process."
HORROR DETAILS
Last month Liverpool Crown Court heard details of the children's injuries that were so horrific, their parents asked the media not to repeat them.
Rudakubana has now been jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years following the horrific triple murder.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Goose said would have killed all 26 children in the community space if he could have done.
He also said it was highly unlikely that Rudakubana will ever be released.
