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Gary Poland, a taxi driver involved in the Southport stabbing incident on 29 July 2024, has had his taxi licence revoked following the public inquiry into the attack. Poland had transported the assailant, Axel Rudakubana, then 17 years old, to the Hart Space dance studio. Rudakubana entered a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop and began stabbing children at random, killing three young girls—Alice da Silva Aguiar (nine), Elsie Dot Stancombe (seven), and Bebe King (six)—and seriously injuring several others, including adults. Dashboard camera footage revealed Poland driving away amidst the chaos, as children fled from the building in screams he described as “like a stampede for their lives.”
The inquiry brought to light that despite witnessing the horrifying aftermath of the attack, Poland did not immediately contact emergency services. Instead, he called a friend and continued working by picking up and dropping off another fare before finally calling 999 upon arriving home nearly 50 minutes after the stabbing began. Poland, who gave evidence by video link, admitted he “went into panic mode” and initially believed the incident involved a shooting. Reflecting on the event, he stated, “I regret not helping the children, their screams were harrowing and I can still hear them when I think back to that day.”
Sefton Council, responsible for issuing taxi licences, confirmed that Poland’s licence was rescinded due to not meeting the required standards. The conditions attached to his taxi licence emphasized the driver’s responsibility to keep children and young people safe and explicitly required contacting emergency police if they believed a child was in serious danger. During questioning, Poland acknowledged this guidance as “common sense.” However, the inquiry also heard that the delayed call from Poland did not cause a major delay in emergency response because a dance class teacher, Leanne Lucas, was able to call 999 shortly after the attack began, despite sustaining critical injuries.
In a broader context, the inquiry chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford revealed multiple systemic failures across agencies that interacted with Rudakubana prior to the attack. His 760-page report underscored a pattern of passing responsibility and downgrading involvement, which, combined with Rudakubana’s autism being used as an excuse for his behavior, prevented any agency from fully assessing or acting upon the threat he posed. Fulford called for an end to this “merry-go-round” of referrals and assessments. The government confirmed it would adopt all of his recommendations, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood committing to urgent action to protect the public. The next phase of the inquiry will examine how well multi-agency systems address risks posed by young people who may carry out extreme acts of violence
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