Southport ricin charge statement was delayed by riot fears

November 3, 2024

That’s right – drag T0mmy R0bins0n into it by using his picture when the article isn’t about him, why don’t you. From the Sunday Times

The announcement of two additional charges against the Southport suspect was delayed by up to a fortnight amid growing fears of a fresh wave of public disorder, it can be disclosed.

The hold-up happened as the high-profile Chris Kaba murder case was winding up and there was a real possibility that firearms police officers across the country could put down their weapons in protest at the prospect of a colleague being convicted. Kaba, a 24-year-old black man, was shot and killed by an officer in Streatham, south London, in September 2022.

Last Tuesday, Merseyside police announced that Axel Rudakubana, 18, had been charged with possessing terrorist material and producing the highly toxic poison ricin.

The Sunday Times can disclose that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) first sought permission from the attorney-general’s office to charge Rudakubana with possession of a biological weapon on October 15, 14 days before the charge was eventually announced. While the CPS normally makes decisions to charge suspects independently, there are a small number of serious offences that require consent from the government’s two law officers, the attorney-general and solicitor-general. This meant the CPS needed consent on the biological weapons offence but not the separate terrorism charge.

Extensive plans were then put in place for a public charging announcement, with the CPS intending to notify the families of Southport victims on October 18. On that day, sources say that as many as 1,000 riot police had been placed on standby in anticipation that the news could trigger another series of violent demonstrations.

In the end, the attorney-general’s office did not grant consent until a week later, on October 22. It took a further seven days for the CPS to announce the charges, on October 29. The Home Office, CPS and attorney-general’s office have all refused to comment on why this delay occurred.

Sources have suggested that the delay was at least partially linked to significant concerns among ministers, the CPS and police that the announcement could spark public disorder.

They pointed out that by Friday, October 18, it had become clear the high-profile murder trial of Martyn Blake, the Metropolitan Police marksman accused of fatally shooting Kaba, had been close to winding up.

During that week, it is believed, ministers had been making preparations for a scenario in which Blake was found guilty and hundreds of firearms officers went on strike in protest. When Blake was charged last year, firearms officers returned their weapons in protest.

This led senior government officials to raise concerns about the implications of announcing the new Rudakubana charges ahead of the Kaba verdict, a source said.

Four days later, on Monday, October 21, the jury took only three hours to acquit Blake in a verdict that has provoked a significant backlash from black community leaders.

Let’s get this clear; the firearms officers were not the ones going to be the ones potentially rioting. But without a corp of armed officers riots led by the “black community leaders” would not be adequately defended. I have got to be blunt here.

The following day, reporting restrictions were lifted, allowing the publication of Kaba’s criminal background. He was said to be a core member of 67, a crime gang based in Brixton Hill, south London. If he had lived, he would have faced trial over the shooting of a rival gangster after he opened fire in front of revellers at an east London nightclub six days before he died.

Releasing this information, which his mother fought to have concealed, encouraged the flock attached to the “black community leaders” to think carefully about rioting in support of a rather nasty gangster and their demonstrations were not mass attended and didn’t erupt into violence.

It took another seven days before the CPS announced the charges against Rudakubana.

And meanwhile T0mmy was in custody ahead of the Unite the Kingdom rally. Not that he fomented the unrest that followed the Southport murders. That was spontaneous.

The oligarchy are as devious and crafty as a basket full of monkeys.

Digressing slightly, every defendant charged at a police station has a photograph, a ‘mug-shot’ taken and it is this photograph issued to newspapers reporting on the crime, sometimes in addition to family photographs or something mined from social media. In the case of Axel Rudakubana all the public is allowed is a school photograh of him aged 10. Or three court sketches; in one he has his head in his hands, and the other two he is covering his face with his pullover. Leaving aside that this would have been a contempt in the face of the court not so many years ago, what is being kept from the public about his face as an adult?