The lead detective investigating the Southport attack has revealed he wanted the mass murder to be declared terrorism.
Det Chf Insp Jason Pye revealed he would have been 'happy' if the July 29 outrage had been classified as a terror attack 'all day' as it would have given him more time to ask questions than 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana .
It follows growing controversy over whether the dance studio atrocity should have been classified as an act of terror.
Britain's reform leader Nigel Farage this week accused the government of a “gigantic cover-up from day one”, claiming authorities “refused to classify the killings as terror-related for fear of the backlash that could be been'.
Prosecutors have maintained that Rudakubana's crimes did not meet the legal requirements to be considered terrorism because he was not motivated by any known political or religious ideology.
But as he jailed Rudakubana for life at Liverpool Crown Court today, the judge, Mr Justice Goose, said his “sadistic” attempt at mass murder was “equivalent” to an act of terror.
DCI Pye revealed how his team of investigators struggled with why it had not been declared a terrorist incident.
The lead detective investigating the Southport attack has revealed he wanted the mass murder to be declared terrorism. Det Chf Insp Jason Pye (pictured) revealed he would have been 'happy' if the July 29 outrage had been classified as a terror attack
Det Chf Insp Jason Pye said it would have given him more time to question 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana (pictured), who was jailed for life at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.
Prosecutors have maintained that Rudakubana's crimes did not meet the legal requirements to be considered terrorism because he was not motivated by any known political or religious ideology. Pictured: A court artist sketch of Rudakubana appearing at Liverpool Crown Court
He said the killer had “absolutely caused terror” and admitted that even relatives of the victims of last July's atrocity had asked tough questions about whether police were “hiding” a terror motive.
Mr Justice Goose said he 'must accept' that the attack 'does not meet the definition of an act of terror for the purposes of the legislation as there is no evidence that the aim was to further a particular political or ideological cause '.
“However, his guilt is equivalent in severity to terrorist murders, whatever his purpose,” he added.
On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer said the law may need to be reformed. He said “terrorism has changed” and that the threat of “loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” must be taken more seriously.
Speaking about the early hours and days after the attack, DCI Pye said in his first interview on the biggest case of his career that his team assessed whether it was a terror attack “almost daily”.
“We sat here as a research team and talked about it: it looks like this, it sounds like this, the public will say it is like that,” he said.
“You know, we've been scratching our heads for a long time – why not?
“It was assessed almost daily: Is this terrorism?”
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was one of three children killed in the knife attack in Southport
Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, was also fatally injured in the attack which shocked the nation
Bebe King, six years old, was killed in the attack. A suspect, 17, has appeared in court charged with three murders
DCI Pye said that when information came in about the discovery of suspected deadly biological poison ricin in Rudakubana's bedroom, and the study of an Al Qaeda training manual he had downloaded, he continued to hammer home the point.
'I say: 'Isn't this terrorism?' he said.
He revealed that families had pressed police on whether they were 'hiding' the truth, asking 'why wouldn't you want to call it a terrorist act?'
But he emphasized that the investigation team had actually been okay with calling it a terrorist attack.
Pictured: Police on Hart Street Southport, Merseyside, in the aftermath of the attack
“I would have been happy all day if someone had said it was a terrorist attack,” DCI Pye said.
Had this happened, police would have had up to two weeks to detain Rudakubana before seeking permission to charge him – instead of the standard maximum of 72 hours.
Instead, with the clock ticking, this meant his team of almost 80 Merseyside police officers were working around the clock, tackling issues such as whether the 17-year-old's mental health was a factor before he could be accused of the three murders. and ten attempted murders.
“So it did us absolutely no advantage that this was never called terrorism,” he added.
“It definitely would have meant we had time to do a lot more things.”
DCI Pye emphasized that the investigation was given all available resources and that linking it to terrorism would not have made any difference.
He defended the team's decision, insisting that the absence of any identified political or religious ideology in Rudakubana's motivation meant it could not amount to terrorism in the eyes of the law.
'He has definitely caused terror, that is the first element. I don't think there's any doubt that he did that.
“He created mass murder, I don't think there's any doubt about that violence within the community.
'The third part must be political and religious [ideology] and we just don't have it.'
DCI Pye said Rudakubana's guilty pleas on what should have been the first day of his trial had come as as much of a surprise to him as everyone else in the court.
Asked about Rudakubana's motivation for reconsidering his plea, he said: “My view is probably that he is trying to control it, but again, unless he ever said something, we would never know.”
He described the cowardly attack on children, which sent shockwaves around the world, as “the most evil thing in the world” and “the good in the world coming together.”
DCI Pye also said that although Rudakubana's action in deleting his internet browsing history just minutes before he launched the attack meant officers did not know what sites he was looking at, he had not accessed the dark web.
Instead, all the material he downloaded about wars, atrocities and genocide was obtained through Google and Bing.
