Southport monster Axel Rudakubana moved to psychiatric hospital as he ‘couldn’t be managed safely in prison’

SOUTHPORT monster Axel Rudakubana has been moved to a secure hosptial from jail, it has been revealed. The triple child killer has been switched from tough Belmarsh Prison, London to Broadmoor – after The Sun revealed the move was on the cards last June. The innocent victims, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar Credit: PA An aerial photograph of Broadmoor Hospital just outside Crowthorne in Berkshire Credit: Getty The transfer means Rudakubana, 18, will be treated as a patient rather than a prisoner and will have round the clock access to nurses and psychologists. The move to the cushier Berkshire psychiatric hospital – which held Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe for 32 years – will cost the taxpayer more than £330,000 per year compared to the £60,000 cost of a prison place. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! One source said: “Most people will find this disgraceful and feel that Rudakubana has pulled the wool over the authorities’ eyes. “He will be treated so much better at Broadmoor and have all his needs catered for.” Axel Rudakubana at Liverpool Crown Court where he was declared fit to stand trial Credit: PA Belmarsh Prison where Rudakubana had increased jail security Credit: Ray Collins We told last year how Rudakubana – jailed for life for murdering Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a dance class in Southport in 2024 – was being assessed for a move. One source said at the time the child killer was “very keen for the move” but some at the category A prison thought he could be “gaming the system”. They added: “He knows he would be on easy street at any hospital, as opposed to Belmarsh which is one of the toughest prisons in the UK.” He was being held in a segregation unit at Belmarsh after hurling boiling water at a guard in May, 2025. Most read in The Sun Increased security measures mean he was only able to leave his cell for one hour a day when escorted by four prison officers. The fiend’s transfer is likely to upset the families of his three victims after he was ruled fit to stand trial in January 2025. Rudakubana, 19, from Banks, Lancashire, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 52 years for the murder of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine. A spokesperson for the MoJ said the triple killer is unlikely to ever be released. Flowers and tributes outside the Atkinson Art Centre Southport Credit: PA Police officers and forensic personnel after the horrific knife attack in July 2024 Credit: AFP He also attacked eight other children, instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes at the Taylor Swift themed dance class. A MoJ spokesperson said: “The families of those murdered and injured in Southport will be in this country’s heart forever and our thoughts remain with them. “Any decision to transfer an offender is made following an independent, clinical assessment, under the Mental Health Act. “Following rigorous security checks, the offender has been transferred to a high-security psychiatric unit, where he will remain until assessed fit to return to prison. “Officials have approved this transfer, on behalf of ministers. This transfer does not change his sentence – which remains at 52 years – and of which he will serve every single day.” Britain’s secure hospitals have held some of the country’s most heinous killers including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Moors Murderer Ian Brady and double cop killer Dale Cregan. Sutcliffe was held at Broadmoor from 1984 to 2016 and had his own TV and DVD player in a private room with James Bond posters on the walls.