The taxi driver who waited 50 minutes before calling 999 after leaving the scene of the Southport stabbing attack has been stripped of his licence.
Gary Poland took Axel Rudakubana to the scene where the teenager murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others on July 29 2024.
A Sefton Council spokesman said: “This individual no longer holds a taxi driver licence following a review by the local authority.
“A decision was taken that this individual did not meet the appropriate standards set out in Sefton Council’s taxi licensing policy.”
In his evidence to the Southport Inquiry in September 2025, Mr Poland said he drove away despite seeing screaming children running “like a stampede for their lives” because he thought he heard gunshots.
Mr Poland, then a driver for One Call Taxis, did not call emergency services until 50 minutes after hearing screams coming from the Hart Space studio, having picked up another fare and returned home first.
Mr Poland also told the inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall, he had threatened to call the police when Rudakubana ignored his requests to pay his fare, but thought he had gone to get money when he went into the building where a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was being held.
Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked the witness: “Do you accept, as you drove away, children were fleeing alongside your car. And you can be seen looking in the rear-view camera?”
“That’s correct,” Mr Poland said, adding: “I did not know anybody was injured. I did not see anybody injured.”
In a statement, Mr Poland said in hindsight he wished he had called police earlier.
He said: “I regret not helping the children. Their screams were harrowing and I can still hear them when I think back to that day.”
Among the statements in Sefton Council’s taxi licensing handbook is a call for drivers to dial 999 if they feel a child or young person is in serious danger of immediate harm.
