Tony Bellew furiously pleads ‘bring death penalty back’ as he rages over Southport killer Axel Rudakubana guilty plea
Former boxer and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! star Tony Bellew has “pleaded” with the “country’s justice system” to reinstate the death penalty.
The 42-year-old’s passionate demand came on Monday evening, hours after 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana pled guilty to the murder of three young girls and 13 other charges.
Rudakubana, from Lancashire, entered a guilty plea to the murder of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, on July 29 last year.
The three young girls were targeted as they took part in a Taylor Swift-themed dance part in Southport last summer.
Following the guilty plea, it transpired Rudakubana had been referred to the government-backed scheme Prevent three times due to concerns over violent tendencies.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced soon after the guilty plea that an inquiry would be launched into Rudakubana and the failings that befell the Southport murders.
Cooper insisted “the families and the people of Southport need answers about what happened leading up to this attack”.
While Cooper’s decision, which has been backed by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday, is an attempt to provide clarity, former boxer Bellew has urged the government to go a step further.
Sharing Rudakubana’s mugshot onto his X page, Bellew raged to his 772,4k followers: “I’m pleading with this country’s justice system to bring the death penalty back for this sick individual! Make an example of him please…
“Locking him up just isn’t enough! He targeted young innocent children.
I’m pleading with this country’s justice system to bring the death penalty back for this sick individual! Make an example of him please.. Locking him up just isn’t enough! He targeted young innocent children.. He doesn’t deserve to live another day never mind be fed an housed at… pic.twitter.com/t6a8r1zHW3
— Tony Bellew (@TonyBellew) January 20, 2025
“He doesn’t deserve to live another day never mind be fed an housed at our expense! Just get rid of him and everyone like him..
When one follower replied to suggest the death penalty “will never work”, Bellew replied: “I’m talking extreme cases like this where the evidence is there and better still he pleads guilty..
“Put him and everyone else like him on and Island with nothing and let them kill each other.”
Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday following his guilty plea, although he’s ineligible to face a whole life sentence as the mass murderer committed his crimes when he was 17.
Whole life sentences are imposed on the most serious offenders, but used to be reserved under law to killers who are aged 21 and over. The last Conservative government changed the age to 18 in 2022.
On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Starmer said that the Southport murders “must be a line in the sand” but insisted “nothing will be off the table in this inquiry”.
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Speaking to the nation, the PM said: “I know people will be watching right now, and they’ll be saying, we’ve heard all this before, the promises, the sorrow, the inquiry that comes and goes, and inability to change that frankly, has become the oxygen for wider conspiracy.
“And we’ve seen that throughout this case – a suggestion that there has been a cover up. I want to put on record that yesterday’s guilty verdict only happened because hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated public servants worked towards it, many of whom endured absolutely harrowing circumstances, particularly in the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. That is their job. They are brilliant at it.”
Starmer was also asked if it had been a mistake to withhold information before the guilty party was charged, to which he explained: “You would be putting very different questions to me if I had disclosed information, and we were now faced with a decision that the trial had just collapsed and the families would never get justice.
“You would rightly be challenging me very, very hard about why I disclosed information.”