X still hosts bishop stabbing video Southport killer watched before murders

The video of a bishop being stabbed that Axel Rudakubana watched minutes before he murdered three girls in Southport is still available on X, the Southport Inquiry has heard.

Sheen Handoo, compliance and safety lead for the platform, apologised to the inquiry for the first time — then confirmed the footage remains live. Handoo said the video, carrying a sensitivity warning for adult UK users, does not violate X's policies, which she said are the sole basis for moderation decisions. Asked whether the apology extended to the fact that Rudakubana had watched it before leaving home to carry out his attack, she said it did not. Counsel for the inquiry noted it was the first expression of regret X had offered about its connection to the attack.

Handoo said it was "unfortunate" that people may have viewed the video before committing crimes, but that it does not cross the line into gratuitous gore. X, she said, "cannot make judgment" based on opinions outside its own rules.

Rudakubana, 20, is serving a life sentence for the murders of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July 2024, and for the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults. The inquiry's second phase is examining how violence-fixated individuals are managed and the role of the internet in enabling them.

The evidence cuts against the familiar defence that moderation failures are a matter of scale. X did not miss this video; its safety lead sat in front of a public inquiry and explained, in effect, that hosting it is a deliberate choice. Handoo joined the company in 2020, when it was still Twitter, after managing public policy for Meta in India and Singapore.

The video is subject to a sensitivity warning for adult UK users. The inquiry continues.