YOU MAY not remember where you were on July 29, 2024, but we in Southport will never forget. It’s the day we learned of the horrendous murders of three little girls who were celebrating the start of summer holidays with a dance party. Suddenly, the happy scene became a bloodbath.

Axel Rudakubana, a second-generation migrant whose parents were said to be Christians from Rwanda, stabbed the three children to death, and attempted to murder eight other children and two adults. The ambulance personnel were horrified at what they saw; never had anything like this happened here.

Rudakubana was jailed for life, with a minimum sentence of 52 years. He is now 18. He has not only has shown no remorse but has to be kept in special conditions because he remains extremely dangerous.

Now the government’s new policy of putting illegals into privately rented accommodation is causing more fear and apprehension here, because a For Sale sign in our neighbourhood could mean that illegal migrants could suddenly become our next-door neighbours.

The publication of Volume Two of Sir Adrian Fulford’s report into the child murders turned up numerous failures in the social services and other organisations who had been concerned about Rudakubana’s aggressive behaviour. He was known to counter-terrorist police, and had been researching terrorist material online shortly before the murders.

The grieving parents of the little girls – Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine – have condemned the failure of Rudakubana’s parents to report his violent behaviour. His mother and father saw that their teenager kept ingredients for making the poison ricin in his bedroom, and on the day he left to commit the murders they had found packaging for a knife. Yet they did nothing. Sir Adrian said if his parents had done ‘what they morally ought to have’ and reported his suspicious behaviour, he would not have been free on the day of the attack.

The shock and horror felt by the Southport community cannot be exaggerated. I live approximately two miles from the murder site, and when I learned of the atrocity on the TV news I was speechless.

Since that day, the atmosphere in Southport has changed. The murders brought the problem of migrants to the forefront. We have all seen large numbers of men clearly not from this country walking the streets or hanging around our parks. We have become far more suspicious of migrants, in particular of the many illegals who are flooding into our country completely unvetted and unchecked. There’s now an atmosphere of anxiety here which did not really exist before the murders. That seems to have been a turning point for us. Our town no longer feels as friendly as it once was.

Yes, Rudakubana was second-generation, but some of the worst atrocities in recent years have been committed by second-generation migrants. In that I include the notorious rape gangs now common all over the north and in some southern areas.

Southport is not and never was a racist town, but we are angry at the government’s refusal to give us any information about where they are putting illegal migrants. We have always welcomed legal migrants here, but these unknown males of fighting age, who may be criminals or rapists or worse, are testing our tolerance to the limit. A mosque and a synagogue have co-existed peacefully here for many years. After the murders the mosque was attacked by rioters, most of whom had been misinformed that the murderer was a Muslim. After things calmed down, the mosque has opened its doors to locals of all religions or none, and relations are once again friendly.

These days we all meet legal immigrants in our doctors’ offices, our hospitals, our restaurants. We have no problem with them. They are welcome and useful members of our community and we are glad to have them. Yet, because of the huge numbers of illegals we know are being let into the country, our trust in people who are obviously from other countries and other cultures has gradually and inevitably deteriorated.

Read More – Murders, migrants and the death of trust – the view from Southport