Teen who killed 3 at Taylor Swift-themed dance class sentenced to over 50 years in prison

LONDON (AP) – A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the most extreme, shocking and unusually serious crime.”

Judge Julian Goose said the 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to attempt mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.”

Goose said he could not impose a life sentence without parole because Rudakubana was under 18 at the time of the crime.

But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus the six months he has been in custody, before he is considered for parole and “it is likely he will never be released.”

Rudakubana was 17 when he attacked the children in the coastal town of Southport in July, killing Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He injured eight other girls, aged from seven to 13. , along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman, who intervened.

The attack shocked the country and took off both street violence and pastoral care. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to authorities several times because of his obsession with violence.

Defendant disrupts the hearing

Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges of possessing a knife, the poison ricin and an al-Qaida manual. He unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all charges on Monday.

But he was not in court to hear the verdict handed down on Thursday.

Hours earlier he had been led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in north-west England, dressed in a gray prison jumpsuit. But as prosecutors began to outline the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted by shouting that he felt sick and wanted to see a paramedic.

Goose ordered the defendant removed as he continued to yell. Someone in the courtroom yelled “coward!” when Rudakubana was taken out.

The hearing continued without him.

Horror on a summer day

Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack took place on the first day of summer vacation, when 26 little girls were “gathered around tables making bracelets and singing along to Taylor Swift songs.”

Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, entered and started stabbing the girls and their teacher.

The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at the Hart Space venue in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children ran outside in panic, some of them injured. A girl made it to the doorway but was pulled back in by the attacker. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.

Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the videos were played.

Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly horrific injuries that are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic.” One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, while another received 85 wounds.

A teenager obsessed with violence

The prosecutor said Rudakubana had “a long-standing obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”

“His sole purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said as relatives of the victims looked on in the courtroom.

Heer said that when he was taken to a police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It’s good, those children are dead, I’m so happy, I’m so happy.”

The killings went on for days anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists took hold incorrect reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the UK. Some suggested the crime was a jihadist attack and alleged that the police and government were withholding information.

Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda, and investigators have been unable to establish his motivation. Police found documents on subjects including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.

In the years before the attack, he had been reported to several authorities over his violent interests and actions. All the agencies failed to spot the danger he posed.

In 2019, he called a child advice line to ask “What should I do if I want to kill someone?” He said he had brought a knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who bullied him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.

The definition of terrorism

Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 — once after investigating school shootings in class, then for uploading photos of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to Instagram and to investigate a terrorist attack in London. .

But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakubana had no apparent political or religious motive. Heer said “his purpose was to commit mass murder, not for a particular purpose, but as an end in itself.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that the laws may need to be updated to combat a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motives tests the traditional definition of terrorism, “extreme violence by lone, disaffected, young men in their bedrooms .”

Harrowing testimonies from the victims

Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court describing how the attack had shattered their lives.

Lucas, 36, who ran the dance class, said “the trauma of being both a victim and a witness has been terrible.”

“I can’t give myself compassion or accept praise because how can I live knowing that I survived when children died?” she said.

A 14-year-old survivor, who cannot be named because of a court order, said this while she was physically recovering. “We will all have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”

“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward,” she said.

The prosecutor read a statement from the parents of Alice Da Silva Aguiar, who said their daughter’s killing had “broken our souls”.

“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn’t seem right,” they said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”