Deep distrust in the police and a lack of opportunities were also behind some children’s decisions to take part, a new report suggests.

Violence broke out across the country in the days and weeks following the murders of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in July 2024.

A government spokesperson said the mobilisation of the police and criminal justice system to bring perpetrators of all ages to justice was vital in restoring order.

But Dame Rachel de Souza told BBC Radio 5 Live that judges should have the power to wipe criminal records clean where youths had “done their time for some very silly things”.

Her report said her interviews with children charged over the disorder “paints a more complex picture” about why they had become involved.

Dame Rachel told BBC One’s Breakfast programme children who had turned up after hearing about the riots had been “egged on” by “adults who were extremist and were really there to do terrible things”.

Many of the children she had spoken to had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and felt they had acted impulsively.

“One little boy said, ‘I broke windows. The next day, I drove past those windows on the bus and I felt terrible.’ There was real regret,” she said.

The children’s commissioner’s findings come a week after Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe.

He was sentenced to 52 years in prison for the “meticulously planned rampage” in which 10 other people, mostly children, were also stabbed on 29 July last year.

False rumours had spread online in the hours after the attack that the perpetrator had been a migrant, and a violent protest took place close to the scene the following day.

Riots in which mosques and hotels housing migrants were attacked soon spread to many other towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the violence at the time as “far-right thuggery” and promised that those involved would “face the full force of the law”.

The children’s commissioner’s report said at least 147 children had been arrested and 84 charged since the riots, with some as young as 12 sentenced over their involvement.

Dame Rachel said her interviews with 14 of those “unheard and overlooked” children “raise some really serious questions about childhood in England and why our children feel so disaffected and disempowered”.

However, she said her report “does not excuse criminality”.

“As children’s commissioner, it’s my duty to listen to children, regardless of their circumstances,” she said.

“The harm caused by these children’s actions is undeniable. Many – but not all – of the children acknowledged the need for accountability and consequences for their actions.

“Today’s findings offer no simple solutions but paints a more complex picture than has been debated following the riots. However, it is one that we must grapple with in order to create a more positive experience of childhood.”

Her report suggested that previous negative interactions and a deep-seated mistrust of the police had fuelled the actions of children, who viewed the riots as an opportunity to retaliate against the police.

Poverty and a lack of opportunities in their communities also formed the background of their involvement, the report said.

Dame Rachel criticised the “unusually severe and swift” charges which followed the riots, which she said overlooked children’s potential for rehabilitation.

She added that variation between regions in terms of children’s outcomes amounted to a “postcode lottery” for those who became involved with the youth justice system.

A government spokesperson said:”The senseless violence we saw on our streets after the tragic loss of Bebe, Elsie and Alice brought shame to our nation, and the mobilisation of our police and entire criminal justice system to bring perpetrators of all ages to justice was vital in restoring order. There is no justification for the violence which they endured last year.

“More widely, work is taking place across government – underscored by our Plan for Change – to break down the barriers to opportunity and ensure that every child has the best start in life.”

The body, eSafety, said it “noted with great sadness” that Rudakubana viewed the violent footage of the attempted murder of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.

It said other major tech firms complied with its request to take the video down, but X – owned by Elon Musk – only blocked it in Australia, meaning Rudakubana was able to view it minutes before leaving his home to carry out his deadly attack.

The 18-year-old has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years for the murders.

X has been contacted for comment.

Police officers who investigated last July’s Southport murders – which sparked riots across England – discovered a number of devices during a search of the 18-year-old’s home in Banks, Lancashire.

They have said it could take years to uncover what was in Rudakubana’s internet browsing history, which he deleted before he left the house to carry out his attack.

A search on X for the stabbing of the bishop was the only thing that remained, police have said.

He was attacked in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley in April 2024 – an incident deemed an act of terror by the police.

The attack on the bishop during mass at the The Good Shepherd Church sparked unrest in the Australian city.

After the attack on the bishop, which was livestreamed, eSafety said it worked “collaboratively where possible” with technology companies to remove the video from platforms.

“Immediately following the Wakeley attack, companies including Google, Microsoft, Snap and TikTok acted quickly to cooperate with eSafety and ensure the Wakeley stabbing video could not be accessed from their platforms,” the regulator said.

“Some of these companies took additional, proactive steps to reduce further spread of the material.”

eSafety subsequently contacted Meta – owner of Facebook and Instagram – and X, telling the companies to remove the material “under the provisions of Australia’s Online Safety Act”.

Meta did respond and took action which was welcomed by eSafety, but X decided to not remove the video from its platform, it said.

Instead, according to the regulator, X geoblocked the footage in Australia, meaning people outside the country and those within it using a VPN could still watch it.

In June last year, eSafety abandoned a legal battle to have the footage removed.

X has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

It comes after 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to killing three girls – six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.

Cooper said their families “needed answers” about he lead-up to the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town last year.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, had been referred to the Prevent programme three times, Cooper said, between December 2019 and April 2021 when he was aged 13 and 14 years old.

The killer was already known to police, the courts and social services, she said, “yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed”.

Rudakubana admitted 16 charges, including the murder of the three girls on 29 July last year, with not guilty pleas entered on his behalf at a court hearing in December last year.

He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of eight children and two adults, possession of a knife on the day of the murders, producing a biological toxin, ricin, and the possession of an al-Qaeda training manual – a terror offence.

There has been criticism of the authorities withholding information about Rudakubana’s interest in violence and terrorism from the Conservatives and Reform UK.

However, Cooper said lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service had been clear these details “could not be made public before today to avoid jeopardising the legal proceedings or prejudicing the possible jury trial, in line with the normal rules of the British justice systems”.

Now there has been a guilty plea, Cooper said “it is essential that the families and the people of Southport can get answers about how this terrible attack could take place and about why this happened to their children”.

She added that during the summer, the Home Office had commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review into the three referrals concerning Rudakubana and further details of that review would be published this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent programme.

Cooper acknowledged “growing numbers of teenagers” were being referred to the Prevent scheme, or investigated by counter-terror police or other agencies, due to fears about “serious violence and extremism”.

“We need to face up to why this has been happening and what needs to change,” she added.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp welcomed the public inquiry into the “devastating attack”, because the girls’ families “deserve answers… to ensure this never happens again”.

“There are many questions that remain unanswered about what went wrong,” he said.

“We also need to know who in Government knew what and when, as well as why the authorities may have withheld some information from the public.

“As Jonathan Hall, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has said in the past being open at an early stage is important to maintaining public confidence.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the handling of the Southport case “one of the worst cover-ups” he had seen in his lifetime, complaining he had asked questions about whether Rudakubana was known to the authorities but was given “no answer” and had instead been “completely vilified”.

Following the court proceedings, Merseyside Police chief constable Serena Kennedy denied there had been any cover-up.

She said: “We have been accused of purposely withholding information – this is absolutely not the case.

“From day one we have been as open as we possibly could and have constantly been in touch with the CPS who have advised us on what information could be released.

“We have wanted to say much more to show we were being open and transparent, but we have been advised throughout that we couldn’t do so as it would risk justice being delivered.”

“We will never know why he did it,” she said, adding: “What we can say is that from all those documents no one ideology was uncovered, and that is why this was not treated as terrorism.”

The BBC has been told that before the attack, Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent because of concerns about his general obsession with violence.

In December 2019, Rudakubana – then aged 13 – returned to the school from which he had been expelled and assaulted a pupil with a hockey stick, breaking their wrist.

In the same year he had told NSPCC’s Childline he was going to take a knife into school because of racial bullying, which breached their threshold for a referral to local authorities.

Speaking outside court on Monday, Ursula Doyle, the CPS prosecutor, said Rudakubana was “a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence – he’s shown no signs of remorse”.

Matt Jukes, the head of counterterrorism policing, said a thorough investigation will take place now Rudakubana has pleaded guilty.

“The same determination we have shown in the investigation will now be applied to examining how the range of agencies involved with Rudakubana did not come together effectively to identify and deal with the risk he posed,” he said.

Rudakubana is due to be sentenced on Thursday and is expected to be given a life sentence.

However, he cannot be sentenced to a whole-life term for his crimes because he is under the age of 21.