The Attorney General has rejected calls for the Court of Appeal to review the length of Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana’s jail sentence.

Rudakubana, 18, is serving a minimum 52-year sentence for the murder of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, in Southport in July 2024.

At his sentencing, the judge said Rudakubana, who was 17 when he carried out the attacks, would have been given a whole life prison order had he been an adult at the time.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, Lord Hermer KC said after “careful consideration” he had “concluded that this case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal”.

He added that no one would want the families to be put through an unnecessary further court process “where there is no realistic legal basis for an increased sentence”.

Rudakubana’s minimum term of 52 years means that he cannot be considered for release until he has served that amount of time in prison.

Lord Hermer said Rudakubana’s sentence was the “second-longest sentence imposed by the courts in English history”.

He added: “Rudakubana will likely never be released and will spend the rest of his life in jail.”