The brother of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has revealed the moment that made him fear his sibling could go on to kill someone two years before the horrific murder of three young girls. Dion Rudakubana, the brother of the teenager convicted for the attacks at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last summer, told an inquiry that he was worried Axel would “do something potentially fatal” to a member of the family.
Member of counsel Richard Boyle shared a message Dion sent to a friend in 2022 hinting at the violent temper of his brother, who was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years for the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Alice da Silva Aguiar. In the text, Dion, who was visiting home from university, suggested there was a risk of Axel “doing something potentially fatal”. “The fights are scary because of the danger of someone dying,” it read.
Dion told the inquiry that by that point in 2022, he believed Axel had tried to stab his father, although he could not be certain.
Mr Boyle asked: “By this time you had a serious fear that your brother would kill a member of your family?”
Dion replied: “If things escalated to that point”.
He added that he had been frequently absent from the family home while studying at university and had not thought to report his concerns to police “because things had been growing gradually”.
“There was no point of alarm to go and report it,” he explained.
Dion, who is two years older than his incarcerated brother, also told the inquiry that Axel’s capacity for empathy had seemed to reduce over time.
In a statement, he said the 19-year-old reminded him of a character in the film No Country for Old Men.
“Yeah, I think I’ve been told that character’s meant to be a sociopath, and that’s why I used the word there,” he said.
The 21-year-old added that the last time he had seen his brother was in the summer of 2023, when he “threw a bottle” at him, which he narrowly dodged by shutting a door.
