SONALI: MESSAGE OF HOPE

The guilty plea on the opening day of the Southport murder trial will save the parents of the three young girls who were murdered the ordeal of a full trial. It would have taken several weeks in court to prove in law the obvious, inescapable truth: that Axel Rudakubana had wielded the knife to commit these terrible crimes. Now a public inquiry must try to answer more difficult questions: why he did it, and how the murders could have been prevented.

When Rudakubana also was charged with terror offences - the possession of ricin and an Al-Qaeda manual - in October, it was widely assumed this confirmed an Islamist terrorist motive. With reporting restrictions lifted after the conviction, police and prosecutors have been unable to confirm that motive. They appear to believe the manual may have been in his possession more as a ‘how to’ guide to committing mayhem - along with much other material about school shootings and genocides - rather than reflecting specific sympathy to any cause.