Several officials said Rudakubana’s internet history showed “an obsession with extreme violence” including the Rwanda genocide.
His father, Alphonse, who moved to Britain in 2002, is thought to have fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), an armed force that battled the Hutu-dominated regime in Rwanda and eventually brought an end to the mass ethnic killings of 1994.
On two Lenovo tablet computers police found material relating to Nazi Germany, Chechnya, “clan cleansing” in Somalia, the Mau Mau war and a study on the “punishments dealt to slave rebels” in the 18th century. They also found images of conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere.
He had downloaded an academic study on Al-Qaida, which is banned under terror laws, as long ago as 2021, which police believe he may have used to make the ricin.
In his bedroom, officers found safety goggles, a pestle and mortar, funnels and a flask, which contained traces of ricin residue. The items had been bought from Amazon in 2022 – two years before the Southport attack.
