Misogyny and Extremism: A Connection We Cannot Ignore
As the Southport murderer begins his 52-year sentence, I take a closer look at the overlooked role of misogyny in acts of extremism
It’s not often I’m rocked when reading court reports of murder trials. For the best part of six-years I’ve sifted through many of them, searching for answers: how did we get here? How can we learn? Those familiar, ceaseless and, seemingly, unending questions. This week, however, as the harrowing details of three young girls’ final moments were read out in court, I felt a disturbing shift within me - a weight, a responsibility. To say something, do something; anything. It felt different. I sat in this stillness, reflecting maybe this was it, that I had finally hit my own limits of doing this work altogether.
Then I began asking the same questions as everyone else: how has this violence become so routine? How can fragile innocent young lives perish and end so violently like this? And most of all just how can we continue to allow systems meant to protect women and girls to fail, time and again?
Three girls entered a sold-out Taylor Swift-themed dance class, full of joy and excitement. Hours later, they were dead.
Bebe King, aged 6
Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged 7
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, aged 9
Now, I would usually trundle along on here in the story, tell you about the perpetrator, who he was, where he came from, and then debate how he was made, finally ending it all by appending it all with some words from loved ones, about the lives who were lost. But this time, it has to be different. You see, it wasn’t just the raw details of the violence that rocked me, it was the victim impact statements. The words spoken.
Their power. Their weight. They are central to how we review crimes, and they should always remain front and center of their reporting. It is what I have carried with me since my own experiences: that the victim’s voice must be heard. I have shared victims stories for six years now, relentlessly, because I was one of those stories and I don’t want those stories to happen again.
Yet here we are.
Elsie, only seven, was remembered by Jennifer Septhon, head of Farnborough Road Infants School, as “a girl with a super, beaming smile,” and whose infectious energy and love for performing lit up every room she entered.
Bebe was remembered by Natasha Sandland, head teacher of Marshside Primary, as “an amazing young lady full of giggles and love,” with a toothless smile that could brighten the darkest days.
Alice, nine, was described by her parents as, “always very kind” and that a world of possibilities awaited her, “She was a beautiful girl. She was a strong and confident preteen with a world of dreams… Alice was our purpose for living.”
And then there was Leanne Lucas, the dance teacher who survived after being stabbed five times while trying to protect the children in her care, children who came bounding into her workshop with happiness, and without fear. Leanne spoke of the scars that she and the surviving girls now carry:
My role in Southport was to help others, mainly children and their families. My work was a safe haven for those who needed it the most… I have now lost my role, my purpose, and my job as I can no longer provide that guidance and reassurance to anyone.
I could only imagine that when her words spoke, they cut through the courtroom, much like the courage she has had since that day.
For Alice, Elsie, Bebe, Heidi, and the surviving girls, I’m surviving for you.
The impact this has had on me can be summed up by one word: trauma. He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey. To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible.
Reading what these families have endured, knowing that so many of the public were listening and judging from the outside, looking for their own closure…it can never compare to sitting in that courtroom and being the affected, the victim or the bereaved. The silence. The shared pain. The presence of the perpetrator still sat in a dock, monolithic in spectre, still trying to hold court and control the events, the harm, in their lives. It is unimaginable.
Stood at the foot of this story, beneath the weight the harm above we must now start to unravel the how and why.
From the moment news broke that Axel Rudakubana had pled guilty to the murders, a ceaseless demand for answers and accountability has ensued. Just how did a 17-year-old boy become so fixated with violence? How was he allowed to spiral into an such an unimaginable act? Rudakubana’s story isn’t one of sudden escalation, there was no ‘snapping,’ nor mental ‘break’. This was steady accumulative pattern, and at each step of the way, there were missed signs, warnings, and failures to intervene and stop the devastating act of destruction at it’s end.
At the age of 11, Rudakubana had appeared in a BBC Children In Need campaign video, after he had been put forward by an acting casting agency.
But as he grew older, signs of deepening anger and a propensity for violence began to emerge. When he was sentenced in January 2025, his barrister would tell the court that "something changed" in Rudakubana at the age of 13.
Fellow pupils remember Rudakubana at this time as being obsessed with figures such as Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan.
"What should I do if I want to kill somebody?”
As early as aged 13 Rudakubana came to the attention of prevention services after making a phone call to Childline. During this call he said he was being racially bullied. By this point he had been already taking a knife to school. He asked the operator "What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” That call was escalated to police, and after disclosing on approximately ten occasions that he had brought a knife to school he was expelled. Later, when asked by staff at another school why he had carried a knife, he said: "To use it.”
Two months after his expulsion, Rudakubana returned to the school and attacked another pupil with a hockey stick that he had inscribed the names of specific pupils and teachers on. After fracturing the pupil’s wrist police arrived on the scene and found a knife in his backpack.
Between the ages of 14 and 15 Rudakubana attended a special education needs school. During this time staff noted behaviours consistent with autism, including struggles with social interactions, an intense focus on certain subjects and a lack of emotional regulation. He was subsequently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Despite this, his behaviour continued to escalate, frequently accessing violent and extremist content, from school shootings and the London Bridge terror attack to uploading images to platforms like Instagram, often alongside captions or context that hinted at his fixation on violence and authoritarian figures.
Rudakubana’s behaviour had not gone unnoticed. Between 2019 and 2021, he was referred to Prevent, the government-led counter-extremism programme, on three separate occasions. Each referral flagged his growing interest in violent ideologies:
Referral 1 (2019): Referred after accessing materials related to school shootings and extremist content.
Referral 2 (2020): Escalated following the discovery of disturbing online activity, such as searches related to terror attacks and uploads of violent imagery to social media platforms.
Referral 3 (2021): Initiated after police discovered the Al Qaeda training manual and ricin production materials in his possession, raising further concerns about his potential for harm.
Axel Rudakubana in court, Elizabeth Cook/PA
Yet, despite these warning signs, Prevent did not escalate his case and instead concluded that he lacked a clear ideological motive, a decision that has since come under heavy scrutiny and has been at the center of a discussion around whether calling attacks like Southport 'terrorism' can help to prevent them.
We must accept there was no ideological motivation
Chief Constable Serena Kennedy of Merseyside Police has since highlighted the limitations to the rigid definitions of violence that Prevent operate under:
We must accept there was no ideological motivation in this case. But the absence of ideology does not mean the absence of extreme harm or intent.
(Chief Constable Serena Kennedy)
Charlotte Littlewood, a former Prevent practitioner, expanded on this critical nuance in a Metro article in the wake of the case this week, explaining how cases like Rudakubana’s can fall into the category of “Mixed Unclear Unstable” (MUU), where individuals are motivated by violence rather than a clear ideological agenda.
There remains no services specifically tasked with individuals cherry-picking ideologies to satisfy a thirst for violence
(Charlotte Littlewood, a former Prevent practitioner)
This underlines a critical gap in our intervention strategies, something Littlewood argued, and that while Rudakubana’s ideology may have been erratic, Prevent’s mechanisms should have adapted to escalate his case, especially given the clear and apparent signs of his violent intent.
Following the attack in Southport, police have since combed through Rudakubana’s devices to find a chilling portrait of a young man consumed by violence and what can only be described as extremist ideologies. Uncovering images and footage from conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and Korea, as well as copious academic material relating to war and genocide. His search history revealed an obsession with atrocities including Nazi Germany, Rwanda’s genocide, and ethnic violence in Somalia.
Police confirmed he used techniques contained in that manual when he carried out his attack.
Yet, given this wealth of terror-related evidence, questions remain over how Rudakubana’s actions were not classified as terrorism. Mr Justice Goose, in his sentencing remarks, went to lengths to acknowledge this distinct ambiguity, stating:
"I must accept there was no evidence that Axel Rudakubana had any terrorist cause. However, the absence of an ideological motive does not lessen the severity of his actions nor the devastating harm inflicted."
(Mr Justice Goose, sentencing Axel Rudakubana)
Home Life
Questions then remain over what awareness and prevention was available in the home. Rudakubana grew up in a home primarily under the care of his father. Reports have since shown how Rudakubana’s father had tried to physically intervene just days before the attack, stopping him from visiting his former school, aware of his history of violence. Police had actively engaged with him to hide knives from his son to prevent further escalation.
The triggers that unfolded and came out of this home should have kicked in a multi-agency response to help tackle this escalation. Collaboration between educators, social workers and police authorities, but it yet remains unclear to the extent, if any, they convened to help provide a wrap around of supportive measures.
What we do know is that Rudakubana was under the care of an NHS mental health service for about four years, beginning in 2019 after taking a knife to Range High School in Formby. He stopped engaging with these services in February 2023, despite continued offers of support.
The families of three men murdered in Reading, Berkshire, have spoken out to demand more government action following the Southport killings, highlighting systemic failures in mental health care and lack of multi-agency interventions. James Furlong, David Wails, and Joe Ritchie-Bennett were victims of Khairi Saadallah, a man who, like Rudakubana, had extensive contact with Prevent and mental health services but was allowed to escalate. This week, the families warned that without serious investment in mental health and safeguarding systems, dangerous individuals like Rudakubana will continue to pose a threat to public safety.
Role of Social Media
One architect remains: within the walls of his home, a deep darkness undoubtedly grew, fueled by a boy’s unfettered access to violence through the unregulated conduit and space of the internet.
It is here the feeding frenzy of violence arguably served as a central culprit, helping escalate and intensify the dark stirring from within Rudakubana at an early age.
Digital footprints left behind in mass killings over the years often reveal what shaped the minds of perpetrators in the months, weeks, days, and even hours before their crimes. In some cases ideologies take root; in other's it can be the catalyst to harm, and a final trigger upon the precipice of the final act. Rudakubana’s last movements were calculated and planned. In the weeks leading up to the attack, he consumed a stream of violent and extremist content online, including a graphic stabbing video on X (formerly Twitter) that, despite its violent nature, remained accessible on the platform. This content, when paired with the violent instructional material he studied, provided a chilling insight into how unregulated online spaces can actively fuel the escalation of violent intent into deadly action.
A long distant cousin of the ‘video nasties’ of the early eighties, in much the same way the internet and social media allows individuals to repeatedly expose themselves violent and disturbing content, feeding obsessions and fantasies. This isn’t to suggest that violent content creates mass murderers, but it does wilfully act as an agent in normalising such behaviours in young children.
Social media is a trawler, casting its net over children and young people that pulls them into a world where violence, misogyny, and extremism are normalised. It arms lost people and arms them with identities and ideologies, filling the void of isolation, stillness of which to exist and grow, and instead provide dangerous fantasies and frameworks in abundance.
Speak it’s name: Misogyny
In the same breath, this was a class of young girls at a Taylor Swift dance class - chosen, almost certainly, because they were girls. That cannot go unspoken. I refuse it. Misogyny is a form of extremism. Drink it in. It’s been the forever reality and we cannot deny it and it is a key driver.
Leanne Lucas put it plainly when she said, "He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey. To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible."
We need to confront this. We need to have the courage to ask HOW we have failed these victims. Misogyny cannot be a secondary detail in this story when it is the defining force behind the destruction of these young girls’ lives.
It is the story. It was a motivation, the lens through which he planned his violence, his end destination as he exited the cab that dropped him off that day. The specificity of this event, as he got out and searched for a group of young girls, it cannot be overlooked. This is the reality we must address if we are to prevent these horrors from happening again.
Yet, amid the toing and froing of political discourse following the judgment, figures like David Davis MP have opined that “there will always be such people,” arguing that the Terrorism Act has a very clear definition and that whilst Rudakubana was not inspired by any one ideology “he was a psychopath, and there will always be such people, and there's a limit to what we can do to stop them."
"Jack the Ripper was an horrific character, but he was not a terrorist... The Terrorism Act has a very clear definition of terrorism, which is violence that is racially inspired or inspired by ideology or religion. I think he was none of those things. He was a psychopath, and there will always be such people, and there's a limit to what we can do to stop them."
(David Davis MP)
The harsh reality that current systems can and will continue to fail in handling cases like Rudakubana is an alarming thought. That among the 60 or 70 million people in the UK, countless others will have passed through these services without receiving any intervention. That neither Prevent or mental health have the wherewithal or capacity to tackle cases with a pattern of escalation. Yet, in the eyes of figures like David Davis, there is no safeguarding possible for individuals like Rudakubana, leaving us to simply accept such tragedies as inevitable.
The idea that collective denial can allow a person flagged repeatedly for escalating acts of violence to slip through the cracks in the system is a reality we cannot and must not accept. System where warning signs and escalation are routinely overlooked is not fit for purpose.
Extreme misogyny must be seen as a central driver to these acts because women and young girls were the targeted victims of those attacks. Plans to review of the UK's counter-extremism strategy and determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies have been announced Yvette Cooper, the home secretary. The review is expected to be completed by October 2025 and will focus on mapping and monitoring extremist trends, including misogyny.
"For too long, governments have failed to address the rise in extremism, both online and on our streets, and we've seen the number of young people radicalised online grow. Hateful incitement of all kinds fractures and frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy."
(Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary)
The Southport attack, like so many others, underscores how hatred of women consistently fuels acts of mass violence by men. It is known and researched piece of work. As Joan Smith, author of Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists, points out, extreme misogyny is an ideology in its own right, and one with deadly consequences. The Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi, displayed a toxic combination of misogyny and Islamist ideology, attacking a young woman for wearing a short skirt years before his act of terror. Similarly, Jake Davison’s misogynistic rants were harbingers of the Plymouth attack. These examples reveal how online spaces allow isolated men to normalise and fuel their hatred, as well as escalate their violent fantasies.
Extreme misogyny needs to be recognised as an ideology in its own right – and one that carries an unacceptable risk of radicalising bitter young men.
Joan Smith, Journalist and Author
Tech platforms remain at the forefront of tackling these issues, yet platforms like X (formerly Twitter) not only profit from harmful engagement, but also allow violent and harmful content accessible to it’s users - including pornographic material, another key driver in misogyny, all freely available to users as young as 13 to access. The proliferation continues.
Despite these glaring patterns, misogyny remains unrecognised as form of extremism. Misogyny is not and cannot remain a side note to these acts. It is central to understanding and stopping these tragedies. We must call it what it is: a form of terror.
Whilst the Home Secretary has announced a full independent public inquiry into the Southport attack, there will surely be more information and opportunities to learn from these horrific events.
Many may well come to still determine Axel Rudakubana as an isolated “monster” or “psychopath”, but this must be resisted. These labels are a collective hand-washing by society and only help to obscure the deeper systemic failures that allowed him to escalate.
Society often resorts to the trope of “evil,” and though in cases like this it may feel impossible to refute, we must, if only to remember the three girls lost and whose suffering cannot be in vain.
By labeling future cases like Rudakubana as an incurable, as inhuman and an anomaly, it avoids confronting the broader truth: his actions were not inevitable, and his escalation was not unstoppable. The warning signs were there - again and again, one missed after the other, interventions with it too, the long storied patterns of violence ignored, and a failure to connect the dots between his growing violent tendencies and misogynistic motivations.
We must do better, not just in assigning blame after the fact, and especially not for political point scoring, but in building systems that do intervene, that connect fragmented services, who track and manage these individuals, ensuring that they treat every warning as a moment to act. Every moment is a moment to be had, a moment to changes things, and a moment to hope this will never happen again. Anything less risks repeating the same mistakes. For the families of Alice, Elsie, and Bebe, and for every victim of male violence against women and girls, this must be a moment for change, where the excuses end and accountability begins.
It is key that we do not accept the inevitability of people like Rudakubana and the final acts they deliver.
Please take time to read the victim impact statements that I have collated here.
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Just read the extra bit and you are so right. We have to do something to change society that normalises and encourages such mysogeny and hatred and such violence.
This is an incredibly powerful piece of writing, one that will really stick with me. Thank you David.