Within days, in early August, officers searching Rudakubana’s home found ricin and a file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants, the Al Qaeda training manual”.
The government was kept up-to-date about the discovery. The has been told the ricin was in a Tupperware box in his bedroom.
Police rarely give details of an ongoing investigation without what they describe as a “policing purpose”.
In this case, false rumours were spreading online about the killer, including that he had migrated to Britain.
Senior officers felt under pressure to reassure the public, and dispel some of the rumours about the suspect by making clear he was in fact British.
But after discovering the ricin and manual they did not immediately make this public.
The investigation continued, with searches taking weeks because of the need for teams to wear hazmat suits and take a break every 40 minutes.
As they prepared to announce the outcome to the investigation, senior police officers became frustrated that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was advising them to withhold many details they felt should be made public, due to false claims online.
The killer was not charged with production of a biological weapon, and possession of information likely to be useful for terrorism, until 29 October 2024.
