AR’s purchase of castor beans, associated chemical equipment and production of a crude preparation of ricin

Legislation

¶25. It is an offence to manufacture or retain ricin under both section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and section 2 of the Chemical Weapons Act 1996. Therefore, extracting ricin from castor beans is a criminal offence.

¶26. It is not an offence to purchase or possess castor beans, which are lawfully available from conventional commercial outlets such as nurseries. Castor plants are fairly widely used for ornamental purposes and, therefore, have a benign everyday gardening use. The purchase of castor beans is therefore not in any way regulated.

¶27. Retailers, such as Amazon, are under a duty to report suspicious transactions of regulated or reportable substances covered by the Poisons Act 1972 (including any transaction that seems unusual).³¹⁶³¹⁶ First Witness Statement of Ms Ellsmore HOM000078/§298. Regulated substances require a licence for purchase. Reportable substances do not require a licence but must be monitored for suspicious activity. The Home Office issues guidance to retailers to assist with identifying a suspicious transaction. This legislation does not cover ricin, and there was no duty, therefore, on retailers to report suspicious transactions relating to the sale of the ingredients used in the production of ricin.

The purchase and delivery of castor beans and laboratory equipment

¶28. On 18 January 2022, via Amazon, AR ordered a ‘Salter… Arc Kitchen Scale’. The payment card was in AR’s own full name with the billing address of 10 Old School Close, Banks, although the billing name given was “Al Rud”. The shipping address was Amazon Hub Counter, Co-op Banks, 42 Church Road, Banks.³¹⁷³¹⁷ AMA000096, row 26.

¶29. On 19 January 2022, AR purchased castor beans from Premier Seeds Direct Ltd, via Amazon. He also ordered other associated chemicals from other retailers, via Amazon, including isopropyl alcohol. The payment card for these transactions was in AR’s own name with the billing name “Al Rud” and billing address 10 Old School Close, Banks. The shipping address for this order was Alphonse R’s full name, 8 Old School Close, Banks (the address of the next-door neighbour).³¹⁸³¹⁸ AMA000096, rows 33-34, 37-38.

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¶30. The items were duly delivered to the next-door neighbour who contacted Alphonse R via WhatsApp on 25 January 2022, stating that he had received two more parcels from Amazon and asking Alphonse R to “get this sorted please”.³¹⁹³¹⁹ MERP000164. Alphonse R learned that the orders had been made by AR because he replied stating it is “sorted now. These were the last orders, I am told. He will use our address next time”.

¶31. Alphonse R stated in evidence that he thought at the time that AR had made an honest mistake and it was not until after the attack that he appreciated that AR had deliberately used the 8 Old School Close address.³²⁰³²⁰ T/S: 34/23/15-24/7. Alphonse R thought that one of the packages contained seeds. He had not seen AR do any gardening, but AR had expressed what I consider to be an improbable interest in gardening to his mother.³²¹³²¹ T/S: 34/25/22-26/12. Alphonse R would have liked to ask AR what the packages were for but said that any questions would be met with a violent outburst. The WhatsApp messages do show, however, that Alphonse R had discussed these orders with AR. He was asked by Counsel to the Inquiry whether this was one of the occasions where he should at least have tried to enquire further, to which Alphonse R said that it was difficult at home.³²²³²² T/S: 34/24/20-25/21.

¶32. On 25 January 2022, via Amazon, AR ordered further equipment, including laboratory equipment, that could have been used to manufacture ricin. He also ordered ‘Food Storage Containers’. Again, the payment card for these transactions was in the AR’s own full name with the billing name “Al Rud” and billing address 10 Old School Close, Banks. The shipping address is recorded as Amazon Hub Counter - Co-op Banks, 42 Church Road, Banks.³²³³²³ AMA000096, rows 39-47.

¶33. On 1 February 2022, via Amazon, AR ordered additional laboratory equipment that could have been used for the manufacture of ricin, using the same details and shipping method as the order on 25 January 2022.³²⁴³²⁴ AMA000096, row 48.

¶34. On 30 April 2022, via Amazon, AR ordered further equipment that could have been used for the manufacture of ricin. The shipping name was “Al Rud” and the address was 10 Old School Close, Banks. The same payment and billing details were used as for these previous orders.³²⁵³²⁵ AMA000096, row 65.

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AR’s possible research in relation to ricin

¶35. After the attack, the police examined AR’s devices. On one of the Lenovo tablets used by AR in the weeks leading up to the killings, the police found a document containing terrorist material that had been downloaded by AR twice in 2021.³²⁶³²⁶ MERP001466/1. This included advice on assassinations using poison, and a description was provided of the production of ricin from castor beans (one of the most potent poisons). It provided a description of the resulting symptoms. Mr Justice Goose stated, in his sentencing remarks, that he was sure that AR had followed these instructions.³²⁷³²⁷ MERP002476/5/§24, Sentencing note (2025), ‘R -v- AR’. Available at www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/R-v-Axel-Rudakubana.pdf

The unwitting discovery of ricin preparation by Alphonse R

¶36. On the morning of 22 July 2024, Alphonse R saw a number of items in AR’s room and the landing before AR attempted to take a taxi to Range High School. These included a bottle of fluid. Alphonse R asked AR what the bottle contained and AR said that it contained alcohol. Given that AR was very agitated at this stage, Alphonse R did not ask him anything further, even though he felt uneasy and it was “frightening to see things that were there”.³²⁸³²⁸ T/S: 34/52/17-53/5. Alphonse R stated that there was also an open small Tupperware box containing fluid. Alphonse R asked AR whether he could dispose of it, to which AR agreed, and Alphonse R poured it down the toilet. He described the fluid as a blue dye colour with a residue on the top.³²⁹³²⁹ T/S: 34/55/2-22.

¶37. Alphonse R stated that he had not appreciated that AR had ricin until it was discovered after the attack. Of course, if Alphonse R had known then he would not have picked the box up with his bare hands. Alphonse R accepted, in this context, that he knew things were wrong, that the things he was seeing “were not right” and were not “normal things” but said that he was scared. However, he failed to ask any appropriate follow-up questions about these items whether on 22 July 2024, or in the days that followed.³³⁰³³⁰ T/S: 34/56/8-57/12.

¶38. Later on 22 July 2024, after AR had been stopped from taking the taxi to Range High School, AR allowed Alphonse R and Laetitia M to clean his room. Alphonse R stated that: “I moved the items that I now know were being used to try to create ricin.” This included some Tupperware and a bottle of alcohol. Alphonse R said that “[t]he contents of the Tupperware box looked disgusting but I had no idea that it contained poison”.³³¹³³¹ T/S: 34/66/4-20.,³³²³³² Witness Statement of Alphonse R IWS000058/§247.

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The police investigation and prosecution

¶39. 10 Old School Close was searched after the attack. During the search, a Tupperware box was found under AR’s bed containing a pulp-like substance. As a result, the search was suspended, specially trained officers were used to complete the search and the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory was involved. By AR’s bed were items believed to have been used in the production of ricin, including a Tupperware box. In addition, police found the plastic bag in which the seeds were sent. Those all correlated to the Amazon purchases referred to above.³³³³³³ T/S: 10/110/7-111/18.

¶40. Images of these items found are below:³³⁴³³⁴ MERP007641/10, 31.

¶41. The items found in AR’s bedroom demonstrated that that a crude preparation of toxic ricin had been produced, using the equipment that AR had bought online.

¶42. As Dr Martin Pearce, an expert from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory instructed in the prosecution of AR, in due course concluded the purchased castor beans could have produced significant quantities of ricin that, in certain circumstances, could have killed many. Dr Pearce provided detailed toxicity assessments noting that ricin is a potent toxin.³³⁵³³⁵ MERP000550/26.

¶43. AR pleaded guilty to the production of a biological toxin, namely a quantity of ricin, an offence for which he received a 12-year sentence of imprisonment.³³⁶³³⁶ T/S: 10/113/2-5.

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Analysis

¶44. I consider the inaction of AR’s parents in this respect further in Chapter 12: AR’s family.

¶45. In relation to the sale of the castor beans, there was no legislation prohibiting their sale nor requiring age verification. Mr Boumphrey indicated that his company are not experts as regards the quantities in which particular products should be sold and they rely on guidance from governments and law enforcement agencies.³³⁷³³⁷ T/S: 17/69/4-9.

¶46. The Home Office is in the early stages of considering the feasibility, along with the potential impact and proportionality, of regulation of the sale of castor beans.³³⁸³³⁸ T/S: 22/92/22-93/17. This includes engaging with a wide range of trade organisations, including online retailers, mapping the supply chain of castor beans, looking at packaging, the size of packaging and the awareness of risk. The review was expected to conclude within a few months when Ms Ellsmore gave evidence on 13 October 2025. In this context it is relevant to note that Mr Philip Redman, the Managing Director of Premier Seeds Direct, has decided that his company will reduce its packet size in order to try to help mitigate the risk that castor beans are misused.³³⁹³³⁹ T/S: 17/68/20-69/3.

¶47. As a result, at the time, there was no requirement or expectation that the purchase of castor beans would lead to further action by Amazon. However, AR’s Amazon order history showed not just the purchase of castor beans but also the purchase of alcohol and laboratory equipment. Amazon has the technical ability to analyse the combinations of purchases in contexts such as this, but they consider that they need guidance from the Home Office as to which combinations would potentially be of interest.³⁴⁰³⁴⁰ T/S: 17/70/2-72/16. Again, as described above, I consider that there is a case for the introduction of systems that can detect suspicious patterns of purchases: the “detection algorithm” referred to in the closing statement on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department.³⁴¹³⁴¹ Closing Statement on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department HOM000212/23/§65.

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