The terrorist handbook used by Axel Rudakubana for inspiration and research into the horrific Southport attack was advertised on the Waterstones website.
Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to the murder of three young girls last year.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack at the Taylor Swift-themed class in The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29.
The defendant, who was 17 at the time of the attack, admitted their murders as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to all 16 charges he faced in court on Monday CPSHe also admitted to possession of a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism – an al-Qaeda training manual.
The handbook he used, titled ‘Military Studies in the Jihad against Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual’, serves as a “tradecraft manual” for terrorists.
It was first published in 2004 and its themes include; assassination, espionage, and how to avoid capture.
The book has been advertised on the website of major booksellers, including Waterstones and Foyles, The Telegraph revealed.
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A hardback version of the book was priced at £31.99, whilst a paperback edition costs £19.95
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It was placed in the genres “terrorism & armed struggle” and “irregular/guerilla forces & warfare” on the Waterstones website.
A hardback version of the book was priced at £31.99, whilst a paperback edition costs £19.95.
Waterstones said that despite the listing, the book was not for sale and that no purchases had ever been made. It has since been removed from the bookseller’s website.
A spokesperson from the company said: “Despite the best efforts of those who manage the catalogues and those who supply books, including ourselves, objectionable titles from time to time are listed.
“With many millions of new titles published each year and the potential for malign intent of some participants, although very rarely, this does happen.
“When we become aware of objectionable titles, we remove them from our catalogue while we investigate them and notify our cataloguing and trading partners.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls in the Southport knife attack in July 2024PA
Sir Keir Starmer has warned that Britain faces a ‘new threat’ as terrorism evolves
PA
“We also examine our filters to improve these to limit as far as possible [for] such instances in the future.”
Foyles has also removed the book after being informed.
Earlier this morning, Sir Keir Starmer warned that Britain faces a “new threat” as terrorism evolves from organised groups to lone actors radicalised through online content.
Speaking the day after Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana admitted murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, the Prime Minister said: “The blunt truth here is that this case is a sign Britain now faces a new threat. Terrorism has changed. In the past the predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent, groups like Al Qaeda.
“That threat of course remains, but now alongside that we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake.”
Asked if he personally considered the atrocity to be a terror attack, Starmer told journalists that while the Southport murders had not been classed as terrorism, they were “extreme violence, clearly intended to terrorise”.