Axel Rudakubana: Evil or mentally ill?

Dr Jess discusses the way people try to fit murderers into two categories

Okay, okay, so the title of this article is bait - because I don’t believe Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana is evil or mentally ill - and I’m going to explain why - but what I am fascinated by is the way people grapple with these two ‘options’.

Did he break into that Taylor Swift dance club and stab 13 little girls because he is deeply evil? Does he have a demon inside him?

Or did he do it because he’s clearly suffering from a mental illness? Psychotic? Autistic?

Neither, in my opinion. The truth is much less Blockbuster Movie and much more… let’s look at the state of society. Again.

Shockingly, the criminal defence team of Rudakubana submitted no defence or mitigating factors in his crimes, and stated clearly that they didn’t believe mental illness caused him to stab so many little girls in 2024, leading to extremely severe injuries for all, and the murder of Bebe King (6 years old), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7 years old) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9 years old).

Personally, I found the lack of defence for his actions refreshing.

I am sick and tired of defence teams of murderers, terrorists and rapists claiming that their client has everything from schizophrenia to autism to mitigate for them. It’s about time someone had a sense of moral duty, and realised how dangerous it is (no matter how much you’re being paid) to present misleading and false defences for serious crimes in order to reduce culpability.

But despite his defence refusing to position him as some vulnerable, confused, mentally ill young man who didn’t have capacity to commit the crimes or was influenced by some form vague of psychosis - this hasn’t stopped the general public from framing him as such.

The comments under my posts last night and this morning are all very similar. There is a clear divide between those who think he is ‘evil’ and those who believe he is ‘mentally ill’.

Here is a sample of comments about Axel Rudakubana:

“Eyes are the window to the soul, so much evil and hate in them.”

“I do believe he has a significant mental illness though.”

“Look at his picture, he looks mentally unwell though :/“

“He obviously has an underdeveloped brain.”

“The demeanour and facial expression proves he is evil!”

“You can clearly see he is demonic.”

“The face of a monster.”

“His eyes are pure evil!”

“He is extremely disturbed.”

“He was autistic, services could have prevented this.”

“He is mentally ill though. He has to be.”

When a person commits murder, the public and the media often rush to categorise them as either ‘mentally ill’ or ‘evil.’

This binary way of thinking is not only totally flawed but also dangerous, as it distorts our understanding of both ‘mental health’ and criminal behaviour. It falsely implies that so called ‘mental illness’ leads to murder, ignores the social and cultural factors that contribute to violent behaviour, and simplifies the reality of human actions in a way that allows society to avoid taking responsibility for its own role in creating violence.

Not just creating violence - but loving violence. Enjoying violence. Playing video games of mass murder. Glorifying wars and genocide. Celebrating murderers. Sexualising predators. Commissioning glossy films and Netflix specials about rapists and murders for everyone to enjoy the gory details.

We totally ignore this blatant normalisation of murder on a day to day basis.

One of the biggest fallacies in the dichotomy though, is the assumption that ‘mental illness’ or ‘psychiatric diagnosis’ is a causal factor in murder.

Not a single ‘mental disorder’ categorised in the APA’s DSMV lists murder as a symptom or a behaviour.

The vast majority of people with diagnosed ‘psychiatric disorders’ are not violent, and research consistently shows that those with severe ‘mental illnesses’ on file, such as ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘bipolar disorder’, are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.

By automatically associating murder with psychiatry, we reinforce harmful stereotypes that fuel stigma and discrimination, making life even harder for people who are already struggling with their mental health and trauma. This also allows society to distance itself from the responsibility of addressing violence as a broader issue - if a murderer is simply ‘mentally ill,’ then we can claim that their crime is an isolated incident rather than a symptom of wider systemic and societal problems.

At the same time, the legal system often uses psychiatric diagnoses strategically, either to exonerate or protect defendants from the harshest punishments.

Defence teams regularly seek psychiatric evaluations to argue that their client lacked full responsibility for their actions due to a ‘mental disorder’ or ‘history of mental health’, while prosecutors lack the understanding and confidence to push back against these claims to ensure a conviction.

Is murder a health condition, then? Something we do when we are suffering from some ‘illness’ we developed?

It pains me that prosecutors don’t push back on this more, especially as we have no evidence whatsoever to prove that mental illness even exists outside of theoretical constructs, we have no tests or biomarkers for these ‘illnesses’ and they cannot be seen on a scan or blood test - so framing a murderer as mentally ill is extremely easy to fake, and extremely easy to argue back against.

On the other side of the fence, labelling murderers as ‘evil’ is a convenient but misleading way for society to make sense of horrific acts.

The idea of ‘pure evil’ is deeply ingrained in human psychology - we like to believe that those who commit the worst crimes are fundamentally different from us, as it provides comfort and distance from the uncomfortable reality that ordinary people, under certain circumstances, can commit terrible acts.

The truth is that violence is often shaped by social, cultural, and psychological factors rather than some inherent moral failing.

Labelling someone as ‘evil’ or ‘monsters’ prevents us from interrogating the societal conditions that breed violence, such as toxic masculinity, misogyny, systemic inequalities, and cultural glorification of aggression.

By reducing murderers to either ‘mentally ill’ or ‘evil,’ we avoid the complex reality that violence is shaped by a big mix of individual, social, and structural factors.

If we want to prevent violence rather than just react to it, we need to stop searching for simplistic explanations and start looking at the broader picture of how our societies enable harm and glorify murder every single day.

We cannot keep reacting with shock when someone grows up to think murder is great, and violence is exciting. It is us, adult society, who keep selling this dream to each generation, after all.

Top grossing films = murder

Top video games = murder

Soaps and storylines = murder

Top documentaries and series = murder

Top TV dramas = murder

Top boys’ toys (guns, weapons) = murder

Most taught history topics = murder

Most revered people in history = murderers

Most well known criminals = murderers

Murder is literally flavour of the fucking century.

What on earth did we think would happen if we continued down this path? Men like Axel are arguably not mentally ill or inherently demonic or evil - but they are saturated and influenced by our pro-violence, pro-misogyny society every single day since birth. Add in the sheer prevalence of child abuse, and violence within our homes and families - and then the accepted culture of bullying and violence at school - and you have a toxic mix for millions of people to learn violence, use violence, enjoy violence, respect violence, continue committing serious violence.

Some people ARE going to act out the violence they have witnessed, played, enjoyed and experienced. Many do.

We just keep scratching our heads when they do it, and argue online as to whether they have a demon inside them or a mystical mental illness.

Time to face up to the reality we built for ourselves.

Dr Jessica Taylor is a Chartered Psychologist and CEO of VictimFocus.