![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/76d1\/live\/cbbd5540-64d5-11f0-ae1f-b1900cb35f1b.png.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe home secretary says a powerful new crime to target suspects who are found to be preparing mass killings will ensure their plotting is taken as seriously as terrorism.<\/p>\n Yvette Cooper said the criminal justice system had to be given new tools to respond to violence-fixated individuals who are not motivated by a particular ideology, in the wake of the Southport attack last year.<\/p>\n Terror suspects who take steps towards an attack can be jailed for life, even if their plans are not fully formed.<\/p>\n Cooper told the BBC that the government will “close the gap” between such offenders and lone, violence-obsessed individuals by giving police the power to apprehend them long before they can act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Axel Rudakubana is serving a life sentence for murdering three girls when he attacked a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport almost a year ago.<\/p>\n Eight others girls were seriously injured, along with two adults who tried to stop the killer.<\/p>\n Had police found he had been researching a target prior to the attack, they could not have arrested and charged him with a serious offence because he had no ideological motive linked to the definition of terrorism.<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s State of Terror<\/a> series, which charts the response to violent extremism over the 20 years since the 7\/7 bombings, Cooper said the police will get the power to prevent such individuals who do not have a clear ideology, in the same way they can with terror suspects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “There is a gap in the law around the planning of mass attacks that can be just as serious [as terrorism] in their implications for communities, their impact, the devastation that they can cause and the seriousness of the crime,” she said.<\/p>\n “We will tighten legislation so that that is taken as seriously as terrorism.”<\/p>\n Cooper said the plan – which was briefly announced in March but not fleshed out until now – was for the new law to be similar to the exceptionally serious crime of preparing for acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n This legislation, brought in after the 2005 London bombings, is a vital counter-extremism tool that has jailed dozens of suspects.<\/p>\n It allows the police to arrest a terror suspect for the steps they take to prepare for an attack – such as researching a target.<\/p>\n But it stipulates that there must also be evidence the preparation is linked to an ideological cause, such as support of a group banned under terrorism laws.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The planned non-terror offence would apply to a far wider range of scenarios, including the activity of individuals like Nicholas Prosper. He had been planning a mass school shooting before he was apprehended for murdering his family.<\/p>\n Cooper said: “We’ve seen cases of growing numbers of teenagers potentially radicalising themselves online and seeing all kinds of extremist material online in their bedrooms.<\/p>\n “They’re seeing a really distorted and warped online world.<\/p>\n “We have to make sure that that the systems can respond while not taking our eye off the ball of the more long-standing ideological threats.”<\/p>\n State of Terror continues on Monday on <\/b><\/i>BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds<\/b><\/i><\/a>.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250711-084946-a521911844-web-2.25.0-9\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/766f\/live\/2d069370-64d6-11f0-ae1f-b1900cb35f1b.png.webp\")
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Youtube](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/60f8\/live\/28afb1e0-64d5-11f0-af20-030418be2ca5.png.webp\")
Youtube<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n