What is ricin? Poison which Southport stabbing suspect is accused of making

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The teenager accused of the fatal stabbing of three girls at a dance class in Southport has been charged with the production of deadly poison ricin and a terror offence.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court by video link on Wednesday charged with the production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

The charges come after searches of his home in Banks, Lancashire, Merseyside Police chief constable Serena Kennedy said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The terror offence relates to a PDF file entitled ‘Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual’, Ms Kennedy said.

Rudakubana is already charged with the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, who were fatally stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Hart Street, Southport, on 29 July.

Ricin is a plant toxin that is extracted from the beans of the castor oil plant. It is very toxic and even the smallest amounts can be deadly if inhaled, injected or ingested.

To kill a 10-stone adult with a lethal injection of ricin all that would be needed is the equivalent of a grain of salt of the poison.

The toxin is easy to extract and store, so is widely available. Castor beans are processed annually to make castor oil which is used in a number of products, including as lubricant in aircraft.

Ricin is contained in the waste mash from castor oil production. It can be produced in liquid or crystalline form or as a dry powder.

Although it is not particularly volatile it could be sprayed as an aerosol, but its use as a weapon of destruction is limited by the difficulty of distributing it in sufficient doses.

Symptoms include vomiting, abdominal pain and bloody diarrhoea. There is no vaccine or antidote to the toxin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that death from ricin poisoning could take place within 36 to 72 hours after exposure.

Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident, was stabbed with an umbrella tipped with ricin on Waterloo Bridge in 1978.

Markov, an author and broadcaster who had defected to Britain nine years earlier, was stabbed in the thigh by unknown assailants.

He died three days later as doctors struggled to discover what was wrong with him. At the post-mortem examination a tiny pellet the size of a pinhead was discovered and ricin poisoning was identified as the cause of death.

The murder remains unsolved, but the Bulgarian secret service is suspected of being involved.