Axel Rudakubana, the UK man convicted of killing three young girls in a frenzied knife attack in the seaside town of Southport, has faced court over a number of alleged attacks on prison officers.
The 20-year-old is charged with grievous bodily harm, where he was accused of throwing boiling water mixed with sugar – a mix known as ‘prison napalm’ – at a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh, where he was serving a life sentence for his heinous crimes.
It’s alleged Rudakubana threw the boiling mix at the prison officer through a hatch on his cell door last year. He has also been charged with two separate assaults on prison staff and a separate count of weapon possession while in the prison.
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Rudakubana appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink from Broadmoor psychiatric hospital. He was transferred to the secure hospital in July from Belmarsh, where he was serving his sentence for the murder of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a July 2024 dance party.
Rudakubana’s only utterances during the hearing were his confirmation that he could hear the chief magistrate as well as his name and date of birth.
Prosecutors told the court that the prison officer allegedly attacked by Rudakubana with the boiling concoction on May 8, 2025, only avoided lasting injury thanks to quick medical treatment.
The other allegations against him include threats just days before against a female officer outside his cell, who claimed he then threw a liquid at her.
He is also accused of punching another male prison officer in the face on October 28, 2025.
The BBC reports that other weapon charge was linked to prosecution claims that stone pieces had been chipped out of the floor of Rudakubana’s cell and sharpened. The shards were discovered by prison staff stuck to the underside of a shelf.
Prosecutor Catherine Pattison said: “When questioned by a prison officer, he said that he was keeping them for self-defence.”
The defendant, who remained quiet during the hearing, was remanded in custody to appear on October 19 at the Old Bailey, the UK’s Central Criminal Court, which is located in London.
Rudakubana was 18 when he was sentenced in January 2025 to life in prison with a minimum term of 52 years for stabbing his three young victims to death at a Taylor Swift-themed summer dance class.
Apart from the three counts of murder, Rudakubana was also charged with 10 of attempted murder for those he injured, and additional charges of possessing a knife, the poison ricin and an al-Qaeda manual.
He unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all charges on Monday – sparing victims’ families a lengthy trial, but also potentially robbing them of answers.
The attack occurred on the first day of summer vacation when two dozen little girls were in a class to learn yoga and dance to the songs of Taylor Swift. What was supposed to be a day of joy turned to terror and heartbreak when Rudakubana, armed with a knife, intruded and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The crime triggered anti-immigrant rioting and has led the government to reconsider its definition of terrorism, its approach to online radicalisation and the way information about criminal suspects is made public.
