Suspect in Taylor Swift dance class stabbings made ricin poison, owned terror manual

The teen accused of fatally stabbing three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer also made ricin poison and owned a jihadi training manual, British authorities said Tuesday, announcing new charges.
A “lengthy and complex investigation” in the wake of the brutal July 29 attack has led to the new charges against 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana, Merseyside Police said in a statement.
“Following the events of Monday 29 July, searches of Axel Rudakubana’s home address resulted in an unknown substance being found — testing confirmed the substance was ricin,” Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said in the police statement.
Producing ricin violates Britain’s 1974 Biological Weapons Act, police said.
Authorities searching the home also found an electronic file on Rudakubana’s computer of an Al-Qaida training manual, titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants,” prompting a terror charge. However, police have not classified it as a “terrorist incident” because the youth had no known motive.
Ricin, one of the deadliest toxins in the world, is derived from the castor bean plant and does not have a known antidote. No ricin was found at the dance class site, Kennedy noted.
“We have worked extensively with partners to establish that there was a low to very low risk to the public — and I want to make that reassurance clear today,” Kennedy said. “All necessary steps were taken so we could be sure that no one was at risk.”
The new charges join three counts of murder already levied against Rudakubana in the deaths of 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King, 6, in the attack that took place in the northwestern coastal town of Southport. Rudakubana also faces 10 counts of attempted murder for wounding eight more children and two adults during his rampage.
With News Wire Services