A violent video watched by Axel Rudakubana before he murdered three girls in Southport is still available to view on X, an inquiry has heard.

The Southport Inquiry was told Rudakubana viewed footage showing a bishop being stabbed during a sermon in Sydney, Australia, just minutes before leaving home to carry out the attack.

Giving evidence to the inquiry, Sheen Handoo, X's compliance and safety lead, confirmed the clip was "still live" for adult UK users behind a sensitivity warning.

She said the video did not breach the platform's policies, despite Rudakubana having watched it shortly before the killings.

Rudakubana, 20, is serving a life sentence after murdering six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar in an attack on a dance class in Southport in July 2024. Eight other children and two adults were seriously injured.

Handoo, who joined X in 2020, said: "I would first like to offer my sincere condolences to the victims, families and everyone in Southport that was affected by this horrific attack."

Richard Boyle, for the inquiry, said it was the "first expression of regret" from X about" its very close connection to the Southport attack".

He asked if it amounted to an apology from X for the fact Rudakubana watched the video of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel before going to the Taylor Swift themed dance class that day, which she said it did not.

Handoo said the video remained on the platform because of X's existing policies and enforcement processes.

During the inquiry, she was repeatedly asked if she agreed that the clip was "horrific and very violent."

She said: "I wouldn't want to watch it, that is why we have controls on our platform for people who don't want to watch something like this."

X has maintained that keeping the video is lawful and that the attack on the cleric was a newsworthy event.

An excerpt of the final report of the first inquiry phase, written by retired judge Sir Adrian Fulford, was read out, which said: "I make clear that I do not suggest that X has acted unlawfully in this regard. UK law currently permits it to act in this way.

"The criticism is that it is deeply regrettable that they have refused outright to exercise their discretion to prohibit posts which include the most graphic part of the material, namely the immediate act of the stabbing of the bishop.

"X maintained this position once they knew that the material had been searched for by (Rudakubana) minutes before he left to murder Elsie, Alice and Bebe."

Although Handoo said "we cannot make judgment" based on opinions outside X's rules, she agreed that she would ask her team to review the platform's current policy.

Hearings in phase two of the inquiry are expected to run until December.