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Dr Gabrielle Watson contributes to media coverage of Southport case

Wed 29 January 2025

Old College

On 23 January 2025, Dr Gabrielle Watson, Chancellor’s Fellow at Edinburgh Law School, contributed to media coverage of the sentencing of Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana. Dr Watson appeared on BBC News, BBC Radio 5 Live (from 1:30:40 - 1:35:56), BBC Radio West Midlands, and Times Radio, and advised the BBC World Service on their coverage of the case. 

Pre-sentencing, Dr Watson explained the legal implications of the late guilty pleas entered by Rudakabana for the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in July 2024, as well as ten attempted murders, production of a biological toxin, and possessing a record of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. 

Post-sentencing, she provided expert comment on the punishment imposed: a mandatory term of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years. According to the law of England and Wales, Rudakabana was ineligible for a Whole Life Order – life without the possibility of parole – because he was aged seventeen at the time of the offences: nine days short of his eighteenth birthday.

You can read more about Dr Watson’s research here, including her work on the public understanding of sentencing as an Advisor to the Sentencing Academy. Her co-edited volume, Sentencing, Public Opinion, and Criminal Justice: Essays in Honour of Julian V Roberts was published by Oxford University Press in January 2025.

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