Teenager sentenced to 52 years for murdering three girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class

On January 24, 2025By Littum

A prison van with Axel Rudakubana arriving at Liverpool Crown Court for his sentencing after he admitted murdering three girls at a dance class in Southport - Credit: Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty Images — A prison van with Axel Rudakubana arriving at Liverpool Crown Court for his sentencing after he admitted murdering three girls at a dance class in Southport – Credit: Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty Images

Axel Rudakubana, the 18-year-old who murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, has been sentenced to serve at least 52 years in prison.

The time includes concurrent sentences for murder and attempted murder. Earlier this week, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. He pleaded guilty to possessing terrorist material and manufacturing ricin.

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Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the attacks, which took place in Southport, England. He killed Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Aguiar, 9, in a stabbing at Southport Heartspace Dance School on July 30, 2024. Eight other children and two adults were seriously injured. Others were left in critical condition.

According to BBCJudge Julian Goose stated that Rudakubana’s intentions had been to “murder as many as he could,” adding: “It was such extreme violence of the highest and unusually high seriousness that it is difficult to understand why it was done.”

Investigations into the attack revealed that Rudakubana accessed a PDF file titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual,” according to The independent. Police Chief Serena Kennedy added that additional unearthed documents indicated “a long-standing obsession with violence, killing and genocide.”

Goose maintained that while there was insufficient evidence to suggest the teenager intended to commit an act of terrorism, he considers the attack “similar to terrorist matters.” Rudakubana will probably never be released, he added.

“(The girls) had come together for a Taylor Swift-themed morning to enjoy dancing, singing and making friendship bracelets in honor of their idol,” Kennedy said. “The girls – who range in age from six to 13 – were the opposite of the calculating teenager who carried out the harrowing and cruel, premeditated attack.”

Southport MP Patrick Hurley has asked the Attorney General to review the sentence on the grounds that “the sentence handed down today is not severe enough, it is not long enough for the crimes committed, we need a sentence that represents the seriousness of this crime that has terrorized the victims and their families.”

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