The teenager accused of murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance club in Southport is facing new charges of possessing a terrorism handbook and producing the deadly poison ricin.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, was originally charged with the murders of Bebe King, six, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, as well as the attempted murder of 10 other people after the stabbings on 29 July.

Riots spread across England amid speculation that the incident was a terrorist attack, a claim fuelled by disinformation online about the identity of the suspect.

Having initially said the stabbings were “not currently being treated as terror-related”, Merseyside police on Tuesday charged Rudakubana with possessing a study of al-Qaida’s training manual and producing a biological weapon, ricin. The Southport attack has not been declared a terrorist incident, however.

The fresh charges have prompted the question of whether there has been a cover-up by police and the government. So what is the truth?