2026年4月13日 / 美国东部时间上午11:19 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
伦敦——
在这场英国近年来最令人震惊的暴力事件之一造成三名年轻女孩被刺身亡近两年后，对此袭击展开的公开调查负责人表示，这起事件“本可以而且本应该被阻止”。
2024年7月29日，17岁的阿克塞尔·鲁达库巴纳在英格兰西北部绍斯波特镇的一场泰勒·斯威夫特主题舞蹈活动中发动疯狂持刀袭击，造成6岁的贝贝·金、7岁的埃尔西·多特·斯坦科姆和9岁的爱丽丝·达席尔瓦·阿吉亚尔遇害。袭击还造成另外10人受伤。
另有16人，其中多为儿童，至今仍承受着严重的心理创伤。
一名家属在花束和悼念品前驻足，悼念2024年8月23日在英格兰绍斯波特舞蹈班持刀袭击中遇难的三名女孩。保罗·柯里/PA图片社 via 盖蒂图片社
袭击发生次日，社交媒体上流传着虚假谣言，且被极右翼人士放大，声称鲁达库巴纳是穆斯林，曾乘小船穿越英吉利海峡进入英国，随后全国多地城镇爆发暴力骚乱。
这场包含种族主义袭击、纵火和抢劫的反移民骚乱持续了六天，席卷英国各地，绍斯波特也成为英国围绕移民、融合和国家身份展开紧张对峙的代名词。
截至2025年7月，即骚乱发生一年后，警方已逮捕1840人，提起超过1100项指控。
此次调查耗时九周听取证词，旨在查明这名曾被包括警方、社会服务、教育和医疗保健在内的多个公共机构知晓的青少年为何能够实施袭击。
验尸庭负责人阿德里安·富尔福德爵士在周一发布的报告中写道，袭击者“走向严重暴力的轨迹被反复且明确地标注出来”，但各机构未能“以所需的凝聚力、紧迫性和清晰度采取行动”。
他指责各机构“反复将风险推给其他方，关闭或降低自身参与程度”，并补充道：“尽管存在如此多的预警信号，但[鲁达库巴纳]能够发动袭击，核心原因就在于这种失职。”
“这场袭击本可以——而且本应该被阻止，”他总结道。
英国首相基尔·斯塔默周一称调查结果“令人痛心”，并承诺将进行“根本性改革”。
“不会对他人构成风险”
早在2019年，出生于威尔士加的夫、父母为卢旺达人的鲁达库巴纳就多次与当局接触。由于担心他沉迷暴力，包括校园枪击和大规模伤亡袭击，他多次被转介至英国反极端主义项目“预防计划”。
但调查发现，对于“预防计划”是否应处理像他这样的人——即那些沉迷暴力但没有固定意识形态的人——存在界定不清的问题，并得出结论称，不对他的案件采取进一步行动“完全是错误的决定”。
最引人注目的失职案例之一发生在袭击发生前几天。鲁达库巴纳已经接受了五年的儿童和青少年精神健康服务护理。但在遇害前六天发布的一份报告中，临床医生得出结论称他“不会对他人构成风险”。
2024年8月23日，在英格兰伯克代尔的圣约翰教堂，送葬者目送棺木进入教堂，为埃尔西·多特·斯坦科姆举行追思礼拜。克里斯托弗·弗隆/盖蒂图片社
调查还强调了政府各机构之间反复出现的信息共享失败，风险细节“随着时间推移丢失或淡化”，跨机构和机构内部均存在此类问题。
因此，不断升级的预警信号被低估，干预机会被错失。
报告还批评了袭击者的家人，称他们“对当局与他们进行建设性接触造成了重大阻碍”。
富尔福德写道，如果将家人的担忧“全部情况”——包括袭击发生前几天的情况——进行分享，“几乎可以肯定这场悲剧本可以避免”。
调查描述了一种模式：其父母要么淡化儿子的行为，要么为其辩护，包括他多次携带刀具上学以及用曲棍球棒实施暴力袭击的事件。
报告还指出，当局未能监控或干预他的网络活动，而他对暴力的兴趣在网上持续升级。
后来从他的设备中恢复的材料包括一份基地组织训练手册、反穆斯林和反犹太主义材料，以及有关多起冲突的文件，包括卢旺达大屠杀。
鲁达库巴纳目前已服刑15个月，他对三项谋杀罪、十项谋杀未遂罪以及与恐怖主义相关的罪名认罪，被判处至少52年监禁。
“对暴力的痴迷”
这起案件引发了紧迫的疑问：当局应如何应对那些有严重暴力风险但尚未实施足以达到逮捕门槛的犯罪的个人。
扩大国家权力以更早进行干预或许可以防止未来的袭击，但批评人士警告称，先发制人的限制措施可能会破坏公民自由，尤其是针对年轻人的限制措施。
该问题预计将成为调查第二阶段的核心议题，该阶段将研究为何越来越多的年轻人在没有明确意识形态框架的情况下被极端暴力吸引。
2025年7月7日，在英格兰绍斯波特致命持刀袭击调查开始前，主席阿德里安·富尔福德坐在听证室中。彼得·伯恩/PA图片社
英国独立“预防计划”专员戴维·安德森告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，威胁的性质正在改变，尤其是在年轻人当中。
“过去被转介至‘预防计划’的是伊斯兰主义者，在某种程度上还有极右翼人士，”他说。“我们越来越多地看到——尤其是在更年轻的人群中——那些在网上吸收了大量极端思想的人。”
“他们不一定追随任何特定的意识形态或阴谋论，”他补充道，“但他们痴迷于暴力、校园枪击和大屠杀，无论施暴者是谁。”
U.K. knife attack that killed 3 girls in Taylor Swift-themed dance class could have been prevented, inquiry finds
April 13, 2026 / 11:19 AM EDT / CBS News
London —
Nearly two years after three young girls were stabbed to death in one of the most shocking acts of violence in recent British history, the head of a public inquiry into the attack said it “could have been, and should have been, prevented.”
Six-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed on July 29, 2024, when 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana carried out a frenzied knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in the town of Southport, in northwest England. Ten other people were wounded in the attack.
Sixteen additional people, many of them children, continue to live with serious psychological trauma.
A family looks at flowers and tributes for the three girls who died in a knife attack at a dance class in Southport, England, Aug. 23, 2024. Paul Currie/PA Images via Getty Images
A day after the attack, with false rumors spreading on social media — and amplified by far-right figures — that Rudakubana was Muslim and had entered the U.K. crossing the English Channel on a small boat, violent disorder broke out in towns across the country.
For six days, anti-immigration riots — which included racist attacks, arson and looting — swept the country, as Southport became a byword for tensions over immigration, integration and national identity in the U.K.
By July 2025, a year after the unrest, police had made 1,840 arrests, with more than 1,100 charges brought.
The inquiry, which heard evidence over nine weeks, was set up to examine how the teenager, who was known to multiple public agencies — including police, social services, education, and health care — was able to carry out the attack.
The head of the inquest, Sir Adrian Fulford, wrote in his report, published Monday, that the attacker’s “trajectory towards grave violence was signposted repeatedly and unambiguously” but that agencies failed to act “with the cohesion, urgency or clarity required.”
He accused institutions of “repeatedly passing the risk to others and closing or downgrading their own involvement,” adding: “This failure lies at the heart of why [Rudakubana] was able to mount the attack, despite so many warning signs.”
“This attack could have been — and should have been — prevented,” he concluded.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the inquiry’s finding “harrowing” Monday and has promised to make “fundamental changes.”
“No risk to others”
From as early as 2019, Rudakubana — who was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents — was in and out of contact with authorities. He was referred multiple times to Prevent, the U.K.’s counterextremism program, after concerns about his fixation on violence, including school shootings and mass casualty attacks.
But the inquiry found a lack of clarity over whether Prevent should handle individuals like him — those with a fascination with violence but no fixed ideology — and concluded that it was “simply the wrong decision” not to pursue further action in his case.
One of the most striking examples of failure came just days before the attack. Rudakubana had been under the care of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services for five years. But in a report published six days before the killings, clinicians concluded that he posed “no risk to others.”
Mourners look on as the coffin is carried into church for a celebration of Elsie Dot Stancombe at St. John’s Church, Aug. 23, 2024, in Birkdale, England. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The inquiry also highlighted repeated failures in information-sharing between government agencies, with risk details “lost or diluted over time,” both between and within institutions.
As a result, escalating warning signs were underestimated, and opportunities to intervene were missed.
The report is also critical of the attacker’s family, saying they “created significant obstructions to constructive engagement” with authorities.
Fulford writes that if the “full extent” of the family’s concerns had been shared — including in the days immediately before the attack — “it is almost certain this tragedy would have been prevented.”
The inquiry describes a pattern in which the parents minimized or defended their son’s behavior, including incidents where he brought a knife to school multiple times and carried out a violent attack with a hockey stick.
It also points to failures to monitor or intervene in his online activity, where his interest in violence continued to escalate.
Among the materials later recovered from his devices were an al Qaeda training manual, anti-Muslim and antisemitic material and documents on multiple conflicts, including the genocide in Rwanda.
Rudakubana is currently 15 months into a prison sentence of at least 52 years after pleading guilty to three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder, and terrorism-related offenses.
“A fascination with violence”
The case has raised urgent questions about how authorities should respond to individuals who pose a risk of serious violence but have not yet committed a crime that meets the threshold for arrest.
Expanding state powers to intervene earlier could prevent future attacks, but critics warn that preemptive restrictions risk undermining civil liberties — particularly when applied to young people.
The issue is expected to be central to the inquiry’s second phase, which will examine why a growing number of young people are being drawn toward extreme violence without a clear ideological framework.
Chair Sir Adrian Fulford sits inside the hearing room ahead of the start of the inquiry into the deadly knife attack in Southport, England, July 7, 2025. Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images
David Anderson, the U.K.’s independent Prevent commissioner, told CBS News that the nature of the threat is changing, particularly among younger people.
“It used to be Islamists and, to some extent, extreme right-wing individuals being referred to Prevent,” he said. “Increasingly, what we’re seeing — particularly in much younger demographics — are people who have absorbed a lot of extreme ideas online.”
“They don’t necessarily follow any particular ideology or conspiracy theory,” he added, “but have a fascination with violence, school shootings and massacres, whoever is perpetrating them.”