UK PM announces policing plan to tackle violent clashes after fatal stabbings | National/World News

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “small, irrational minority” behind the unrest that has rocked several cities following a horrific stabbing at a children’s dance class and vowed to put an end to it as the 17-year-old suspect was publicly identified Thursday, in part to combat misinformation blamed for the violent clashes.

Starmer said the violence was “clearly motivated by far-right hatred” as he announced a plan to allow police to move between communities — just as the “gang of thugs” do. Officers will be able to share information more easily and use facial recognition technology and other tools to prevent the kind of explosions that have sent dozens of officers to hospital over the past two nights.

“This is coordinated; this is deliberate,” he said. “This is not a protest that got out of hand. This is a group of individuals who are absolutely determined to commit violence.”

The announcement came after police officers in several cities were pelted with bottles by crowds apparently reacting to Monday’s stabbing that killed three people and injured 10.

The announcement came as the teenager accused of murdering three girls and stabbing 10 others made his first appearance and was named in court, in part to combat misinformation about his identity, which has been blamed for sparking violent protests across England.

Judge Andrew Menary said his decision to allow Axel Rudakubana to be named was exceptional given the boy’s age. But he said the teenager will lose his right to anonymity when he turns 18 next week and continuing to protect his identity could allow false information about his name and immigration status to spread.

“Continuing to prevent full disclosure has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation in a vacuum,” Menary told Liverpool Crown Court.

Monday’s attack on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a longstanding and vexing problem, though mass stabbings are rare. The killings have been used by far-right activists to stoke anger against immigrants and Muslims — though the suspect is not an immigrant, and his religion has not been revealed.

Rudakubana, who police said was born in Wales, has not been charged with terrorism offences but faces three counts of murder over the deaths of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the coastal town of Southport in northwest England.

He was also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were injured.

Rudakubana did not enter a plea and was ordered held without bail and returned to juvenile detention, although Menary said that could change after his birthday. His next court date is Oct. 25.

The adults, who were listed in critical condition, were first named as Leanne Lucas, who led the dance and yoga class, and John Hayes, who worked nearby and intervened in the attack to protect the children. The injured children cannot be named because of their ages.

Two of the children were discharged Thursday, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said. Five others were in stable condition at the hospital.

Prosecutors did not reveal a motive for the crime, but said the weapon used was a kitchen knife with a curved blade, according to an additional charge he faces.

The suspect, wearing a grey tracksuit, smiled briefly at reporters during an initial appearance at Liverpool Magistrates Court. At his subsequent appearance at Crown Court, he pulled his sweatshirt up over his hair to cover his face. He did not speak.

Neither the teenager’s parents nor the victims’ relatives were in court.

Far-right protesters — fueled in part by online misinformation — have staged several violent protests, apparently in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday and causing a stampede near the prime minister’s office in London the following day.

Hundreds of protesters chanting “we want our country back” threw beer cans and bottles near the prime minister’s Downing Street residence in London on Wednesday night and threw flares at a nearby statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill. More than 100 people were arrested for offences including violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker, London’s Metropolitan Police force said.

Police officers were pelted with bottles and eggs in the north-east English town of Hartlepool, where a police car was set on fire. A smaller disturbance was reported in Manchester.

On Tuesday night, a crowd of hundreds of people threw bricks and bottles at riot police in Southport, set fire to rubbish bins and vehicles and looted a shop, hours after a peaceful vigil for the stabbing victims.

Police said the name circulating on social media purporting to be the suspect — spread by far-right activists and murky accounts purporting to be news organizations — was incorrect and that the suspect was born in Britain, contrary to online claims that he was an asylum seeker.

Jonathan Brash, MP for Hartlepool, said there needed to be a conversation about how misinformation was being spread by the far right on social media to incite violence.

“I see it almost every day – blatant lies about these situations designed to cause violence, to incite racial hatred,” Brash, a Labour politician, told BBC Radio 4. “We have to deal with this situation because there is so much misinformation and it is being spread deliberately to stoke tension in communities and ultimately it is the communities that are suffering as a result.”