Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf has condemned the transfer of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana from Belmarsh prison to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, arguing that the decision “adds insult to injury” for his victims' families.
Writing for GB News, Yusuf said that Rudakubana’s case was among the starkest examples of Britain’s failing criminal justice system.
Rudakubana was referred to an NHS mental health trust in 2019 after bringing a knife to school “to use it”. He was subsequently referred to Prevent, the anti-extremism scheme, three times - including after researching school massacres. But Yusuf noted: “Not one of which were progressed.”
Yusuf argued that, having failed to prevent Rudakubana from murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in 2024, the state’s remaining responsibility was to deliver justice by ensuring he spent the rest of his life in prison “with nothing but his thoughts for company”.
But Yusuf said the decision to move Rudakubana to Broadmoor showed that Britain’s “broken justice system offers more sympathy to the perpetrators of these sickening atrocities than to the victims”.
“He was judged fit to stand trial just 18 months ago”, Yusuf wrote. “Nevertheless, he has been given yet another opportunity to play the system.”
Yusuf also highlighted the facilities available at Broadmoor, where Rudakubana could have access to a central garden, sports, social activities, arts and crafts, a cafe, a shop and a barber.
“Plucked out of solitary confinement and dropped into a hospital which looks more like a fashionable leisure centre than a place of punishment, Rudakubana will now get to enjoy all the fruits of his newfound freedom”, he said.
Yusuf argued that society’s only responsibility was to keep Rudakubana “locked away for the rest of his life” at minimal cost to taxpayers.
He warned that decisions of this kind were causing Britons to lose faith in the government’s ability to keep them safe and punish offenders.
“Britain’s justice system is broken and in need of total overhaul”, Yusuf concluded. “That’s what Reform will do.”
Writing for GB News, Yusuf said that Rudakubana’s case was among the starkest examples of Britain’s failing criminal justice system.
Rudakubana was referred to an NHS mental health trust in 2019 after bringing a knife to school “to use it”. He was subsequently referred to Prevent, the anti-extremism scheme, three times - including after researching school massacres. But Yusuf noted: “Not one of which were progressed.”
Yusuf argued that, having failed to prevent Rudakubana from murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in 2024, the state’s remaining responsibility was to deliver justice by ensuring he spent the rest of his life in prison “with nothing but his thoughts for company”.
But Yusuf said the decision to move Rudakubana to Broadmoor showed that Britain’s “broken justice system offers more sympathy to the perpetrators of these sickening atrocities than to the victims”.
“He was judged fit to stand trial just 18 months ago”, Yusuf wrote. “Nevertheless, he has been given yet another opportunity to play the system.”
Yusuf also highlighted the facilities available at Broadmoor, where Rudakubana could have access to a central garden, sports, social activities, arts and crafts, a cafe, a shop and a barber.
“Plucked out of solitary confinement and dropped into a hospital which looks more like a fashionable leisure centre than a place of punishment, Rudakubana will now get to enjoy all the fruits of his newfound freedom”, he said.
Yusuf argued that society’s only responsibility was to keep Rudakubana “locked away for the rest of his life” at minimal cost to taxpayers.
He warned that decisions of this kind were causing Britons to lose faith in the government’s ability to keep them safe and punish offenders.
“Britain’s justice system is broken and in need of total overhaul”, Yusuf concluded. “That’s what Reform will do.”
