Criminals plotting mass killings to be detained earlier under new law

Police and courts are to be given powers to deal with suspects believed to be planning mass killings, the Home Secretary has confirmed.

Yvette Cooper said the new tools will enable the criminal justice system to "close the gap" between terror suspects, who face life imprisonment for planning attacks, and non-ideological individuals.

Police will be empowered to apprehend them before attacks are carried out.

In an interview, Ms Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s State of Terror series: “There is a gap in the law around the planning of mass attacks that can be just as serious (as terrorism) in their implications for communities, their impact, the devastation that they can cause and the seriousness of the crime.

“We will tighten legislation so that that is taken as seriously as terrorism.”

She said legislation would be similar to that which allows police to arrest terror suspects for steps taken to prepare for an attack, such as research, which is not currently available without links to an ideological cause.

Ms Cooper added: “We’ve seen cases of growing numbers of teenagers potentially radicalising themselves online and seeing all kinds of extremist material online in their bedrooms.

“We have to make sure that the systems can respond while not taking our eye off the ball of the more long-standing ideological threats.”

Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana, who killed three girls at a dance class, is among the individuals who could have been covered by the legislation.

Axel Rudakubana was given a life sentence in January, with a minimum term of 52 years – one of the highest minimum terms on record – for murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.

The 18-year-old also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.