It was publicly reported yesterday that Axel Rudakubana, who killed three little girls in Southport in 2024 and serious injured countless more, has been transferred from Belmarsh prison in London, to Broadmoor hospital in Berkshire.
Broadmoor is one of the UK’s four “high secure” hospitals along with Rampton (Nottinghamshire), Ashworth (Merseyside) and Carstairs (Scotland).
SO WHAT’S GOING ON?
Legally speaking, he has been transferred under s47 of the Mental Health Act 1983 and will no doubt be subject to a restriction order under s49 MHA – he’s a s47/49 patient and this blog is just highlighting a few issues which social media shows are questions many of the public are asking (or shouting at their phones, quite frankly) so perhaps this might help? –
- Nothing about this transfer to hospital changes the fact he was convicted of three murders and ten other serious violent offences, gaining himself a 52yr prison sentence.
- For now, he will be serving that sentence in hospital until such time as he no longer requires inpatient hospital treatment for what we are now told is a “serious mental health condition”.
- He will be regarded whilst in hospital “as if” he was there on a restricted hospital order under s37/41 – that is what a s47/49 means but the normal ‘exit’ route from s37/41 will not be open to him because he’s a prisoner.
- As and when he can no longer benefit from hospital treatment, he will be “remitted” back to prison under s50 MHA, to serve out the remainder of his minimum 52yr term – and he may not be released, even then.
- This transfer is legally no different to him having, for example, suffered a physical injury in prison where he would be transferred for that treatment and once completed, back to prison he goes.
- The only difference is, hospital transfers for prisoners with serious mental health problems tend to last longer, often years.
We won’t know what happens next until it happens – he’s now 19yrs old and his 52yr sentence began in January 2025 so he’s only eighteen months in to it and has over 50yrs left to serve. In other cases of such high-profile transfers, some prisoners like Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper) spent over 30yrs at Broadmoor as a prison transfer patient, before he was eventually remitted and he died in prison. Whether AR spends that long in hospital, we will have to just wait and see how things unfold.
The main point here, is this changes NOTHING about his actual sentence – beyond meaning he’ll serve some of it, in hospital because of his current mental health issues. And yes: it does mean there is now greater cost to the taxpayer. Recent estimates suggest prison is a £97,000 a year thing; high-secure care is over £300,000 a year.
BIGGER PICTURE STUFF
Since this conviction, I’ve been aware of discussion about whether the question of his mental health was adequately reflected in the investigation and prosecution processes. We should bear in mind, the Southport public inquiry, part of which has reported in public, made us aware that prior to the hideous events of July 2024, he was in receipt of community mental health care from specialist mental health services and there were plenty of problems with that, leading to him disengaging, his parents being obstructive and services discharging him because of all that. The inquiry found he was discharged by the Forensic CAMHS team –
“… despite having carried out no structured assessment of the risks posed by AR to others.”
He was assessed in police custody after being arrested, but psychiatrists found no grounds to detain him under the MHA. This admission by prison transfer to a high-secure psychiatric unit does not mean that assessment was wrong, because the recent decision to move him to hospital is about his mental state now, in mid-2026; the psychiatrists were examining him in police custody in July-2024, two years previously. But it does fuel to an extent the discussion about whether his mental health and the risk which may result was adequately considered by everyone. See the inquiry report for more on that.
A number of forensic psychiatrists have commented informally, that it looks like mental health was a bigger factor in this case than previous understood – albeit that point is made without suggesting there is a problem with the court outcome and sentence. Plenty of serious mentally ill people – not just Peter Sutcliffe – have been properly convicted and imprisoned for murder and other serious offences, not withstanding their mental health condition.
So just finally, nothing about this means we should now say, “Ah, Rudabukana was obviously insane!” and that is a comment we can see bouncing around on social media. Insanity is about someone’s mental state at the time offences were committed. Whatever happened before the awful events and in the last months, the trial did not return a finding of insanity and his defence did not go there, despite having every right to raise that defence if they believed it were relevant.
So he was found guilty – and he’s still guilty, his still convicted, he’s still sentenced to the second longest criminal sentence in British legal history (and the very longest sentence ever imposed on a child offender – he was 17). None of that changes because of this transfer from Belmarsh to Broadmoor – it’s just he’ll be spending some time in hospital until they decided he no longer needs to, that’s all.
Hope this helps!
Awarded the President’s Medal, by
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
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All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2026
I am not a police officer.
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 