The suburban family home where Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana manufactured a deadly poison and plotted his horrific attack on a children's dance class is now scheduled for sale, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The Arsenal of Terror
An ongoing public inquiry has heard shocking details about how the violent teenager stored an extensive arsenal of weapons at his family's three-bedroom semi-detached property in Old School Close, Banks, Lancashire. Following the brutal July 2024 attack at the Hart Space dance studio, where Rudakubana murdered nine-year-old Alice Da Silva Aguiar and two other young girls, police conducted a thorough search of his home.
Officers discovered a terrifying stockpile that included knives, a machete, a crossbow, and arrows. More disturbingly, they found devices containing extremist material linked to Al Qaeda and, most alarmingly, a substance identified as the lethal poison ricin. The killer had been manufacturing this biological agent in a lunchbox concealed beneath his bed.
Investigators confirmed he possessed enough raw materials to kill nearly 13,000 people. The grimy mixture of toxic castor beans had been ground using a pestle and mortar, which still contained remnants of the beans. Equipment for sieving and filtering the poison was also found scattered throughout the house.
A Community in 'Strange Limbo'
One Vision Housing, which owns the property valued at approximately £130,000, has confirmed plans to sell the house. According to Land Registry records, the killer's mother, Laetitia Muzayire, purchased a 125-year shared ownership lease on July 21, 2017, for £41,250, with a mortgage believed to be from Barclays Bank.
The decision has left neighbours feeling trapped in what one described as a 'never ending nightmare'. A local resident told the Mail: 'A lot of the neighbours have moved out. I do know the ricin stuff unsettled some people. The whole thing is a never ending nightmare. We are just in limbo.'
There remains confusion among residents about how the Rudakubana family relocated from south Wales to Banks and secured the housing association property. 'I just find it all very strange,' the neighbour added. 'Would you wake up one day and say we are moving to Banks? Some people say it was a safehouse or something.'
Life Inside the Killer's Home
Images released by Merseyside Police revealed a chaotic living environment where Rudakubana had been sleeping in the messy living room, which was flooded with delivery packages containing his weapons. His father, Alphonse Rudakubana, told the inquiry he was unable to control his son's destructive behaviour and had himself been threatened with death and had cooking oil poured over him.
The case took another sinister turn when neighbour Caroline McDonald suspected her cat had died after wandering into the Rudakubana's garden. She revealed that initially, an inspector assured her there were no toxic chemicals at the property, only for Chief Constable Serena Kennedy to later announce charges for producing ricin. Ms McDonald has since moved away from the area.
Neighbours reported seeing police at the property 'several weeks ago', with one witness noting officers entered with telescopic ladders and emerged ten minutes later. The family were removed from the house hours after the attack, with their belongings collected by a removal van.
A spokesperson for One Vision Housing stated: 'The property in question was previously purchased through Shared Ownership which is a regulated home ownership tenure. The purchase was processed in accordance with the legal and planning requirements attached to the property. The Old School Close property is due to be resold in compliance with the existing lease agreement and all regulatory frameworks.'
