Old photo from Ireland is incorrectly linked to stabbing incident in U.K.’s Southport

What is the claim?

Multiple social media users have posted a close-up photograph of a man, who appears to be in police custody, with his head pressed against a police car. The claim accompanying this image is that the man was allegedly involved in a recent stabbing incident that occurred in Southport, a seaside town in Merseyside, England, on July 29, 2024. Some viral photos include text overlaid across the lower portion, which reads, "17-year-old Demonic monster."

A post on X (formerly Twitter) shared this image, captioned, "The local Cardiff man from a 'nice family.' This is the face of pure evil who stabbed & murdered innocent young children yesterday in Southport, U.K.." At the time of writing, this post (archived here) has amassed over 242,000 views and more than 2,000 likes.

Similarly, a Threads user posted the viral image with the same claim. The archives of this and other posts can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral photo with a similar claim (Source: X/Threads/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this is the photo of an alleged attacker involved in an incident at Dublin Airport in 2023 and is unrelated to the recent Southport stabbing. 

What is the origin of the photo?

A reverse image search on the viral photo led us to several social media posts from September 2023.

One social media user posted the image on X (archived here) on September 24, 2023, claiming that it showed Kasonga Mbuyi, a man from Angola, at Dublin Airport. 

What was the incident?

We also came across several news reports about the stabbing incident at Dublin Airport on September 17, 2023. 

Irish news outlet The Journal reported on the same day that the victim was a man in his fifties, as was the alleged attacker, who was detained and subsequently taken into Garda custody. The incident reportedly occurred outside Terminal 1 of Dublin Airport, and the victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Another report by The Journal stated that the incident occurred when a man, apparently carrying a small knife, approached a group of tourists in the smoking area outside the terminal and stabbed the victim.

According to a report by the news website DublinLive, footage of an arrest emerged later that day.

A September 23 report by Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE) named the alleged attacker as Kasonga Mbuyi and noted that he appeared before Dublin District Court, where he was denied bail and asked to appear before another court later. According to this report, the man was a former resident of Limerick and had had Irish citizenship since 2014, his defense solicitor said, adding that he had recently been rendered homeless.

Another report by The Irish Times carried similar details, noting that Mbuyi was an Irish citizen originally from Angola.

Additionally, we also found a video (archived here) of the incident, posted on September 17, 2023, by a Facebook page called "Garda Checkpoints Dublin," which shares content related to road-related incidents in Ireland. The 43-second video clip depicts a man being apprehended and escorted from the scene of the stabbing to a police vehicle. At the 0:39 timestamp, he is seen being restrained against the car, similar to the viral online photograph.

A comparison of a screenshot from the original video posted on Facebook and the viral photo (Source: Garda Checkpoints Dublin/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What did the police say at the time?

The Irish national police, An Garda Síochána, also published a press release on September 17, 2023, seeking information about the stabbing incident that occurred at Terminal 1 of Dublin Airport. It noted that an alleged attacker was arrested at the scene and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984, at a Garda station in the North Dublin area.

Logically Facts also contacted the Garda Press Office for comment on the viral photograph. A spokesperson confirmed the person in the image was arrested in connection with the incident at Dublin Airport on September 17, 2023, adding, "The image was taken at the time of the incident."

They further said, "This male is currently in custody in this jurisdiction and has been since the incident at Dublin Airport."

This information makes it clear that the man in the viral photograph was allegedly involved in a different stabbing incident in Ireland's Dublin in September 2023 and is unable to have committed the recent crime in the U.K.'s Southport by virtue of being in custody. 

Southport stabbing incident

On July 29, 2024, a knife attack occurred in Southport, England, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event, in which three young girls were killed and eight children were injured. Two adults were also left injured.

Following the incident, police charged a 17-year-old male, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire with murder. According to the Merseyside Police, the suspect was born in Cardiff in 2006 and reportedly moved to Southport in 2013. Though a minor, Liverpool Crown Court lifted reporting restrictions on naming him due to the misinformation that spread about his identity.

The verdict

The viral photograph claiming to show the suspect in the recent Southport stabbing incident is from a separate knife-related incident that took place at Dublin Airport in September 2023. It is unrelated to the Southport incident.