X Tells Southport Inquiry Bishop Stabbing Clip Stays Online
A video that Axel Rudakubana watched minutes before the Southport attack can still be viewed on X. The platform's own representative confirmed it to the Southport Inquiry.
What X told the inquiry
The clip shows a bishop being stabbed during a sermon in Sydney, Australia. Rudakubana viewed it just minutes before he left home to carry out the attack, the inquiry heard.
Sheen Handoo, X's compliance and safety lead, said the video is "still live" for adult UK users, behind a sensitivity warning. She said it did not breach the platform's policies, although the killer had watched it just before the attack.
Handoo said the video remained because of X's existing policies and enforcement processes. X's position is that leaving the video up is lawful and that the stabbing of the cleric was newsworthy.
An expression of regret, but not an apology
Richard Boyle, counsel for the inquiry, said Handoo's words were the "first expression of regret" from X over its very close connection to the Southport attack. He asked if that amounted to an apology, given that Rudakubana had watched the Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel video before attending the Taylor Swift themed class. She said it did not.
She was repeatedly asked whether she agreed the clip was horrific and very violent. She replied that she would not want to watch it, which is why the platform has controls for people who do not want to see such material.
The judge's earlier criticism
An excerpt from the final report of the first phase, written by retired judge Sir Adrian Fulford, was read out. He wrote that he did not suggest X had acted unlawfully, since the law in the UK allows the platform to do this.
The criticism, he said, was of something else: X refused outright to use its discretion to ban posts showing the stabbing itself, the most graphic part of the clip, which he called deeply regrettable. He added that X held to this position even after learning that Rudakubana had searched for the material just before leaving home to murder Elsie, Alice and Bebe.
Handoo said X cannot make judgments based on opinions outside its own rules. She did agree she would ask her team to review the platform's current policy.
The attack and the inquiry
Rudakubana, 20, is serving a life sentence for murdering six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar. The attack on a dance class in Southport took place in July 2024. Ten other people, eight of them children, were seriously hurt.
Hearings in phase two of the inquiry are expected to run until December.
Source: BBC News