Southport striker Axel Rudakubana jailed for 52 years for killing three girls | Southport attack

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been jailed for at least 52 years for the “brutal” and “sadistic” murders of three teenage girls and the attempted murders of 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

The 18-year-old refused to appear in the dock when a judge said the teenager would likely “never be released and he will be in custody for the rest of his life” for the “harrowing and cruel premeditated attack” last summer.

The full horror of his actions was revealed at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday when it emerged Rudakubana had bragged about his attack shortly after being arrested on July 29 last year.

He was heard to say that he was “I’m so glad those kids are dead” and that he didn’t care that one of the girls he killed was only six years old. Some of the children, aged seven to 13, had been stabbed dozens of times and left with life-changing injuries.

The sentencing, where around 40 relatives of the victims had gathered, was twice loudly interrupted by the defendant asking for medical help.

“My chest hurts … I need to speak to a paramedic,” he shouted before interrupting the judge, Mr. referee Julian Goose as he tried to continue: “Don’t go on! Don’t go on! Don’t go on!”

Rudakubana could not be given a life sentence – meaning he would never be released from prison – because he was nine days short of his 18th birthday when he carried out the attack.

Rudakubana pleaded guilty on Monday to the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.

He also admitted the attempted murders of a further eight children and two adults, as well as possessing a version of an al-Qaida training manual and producing the deadly poison ricin.

Police believe he may have copied the stabbing methods in the Islamist handbook in the Southport attack. He is also believed to have used it to help make ricin.

The 26 girls were gathered around a table making bracelets when Rudakubana appeared in the doorway with a 20 cm knife, at 11.45 – only 15 minutes before the girls had to be picked up by their parents.

In court, family members of the victims were in tears as CCTV footage showed young girls screaming and running from the dance studio seconds after Rudakubana entered.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said two of Rudakubana’s victims had “suffered particularly horrific injuries which the prosecution say are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature”.

Body-worn footage captured by police showed the chaotic scenes as officers rushed into the bloodstained building, where Rudakubana was seen “crouched” over the body of a little girl.

One officer is heard saying, “She’s dead” and another shouted “Jesus” as others screamed around them. Moments later, the officers found one of the dance teachers, Heidi Liddle, who had locked herself in a toilet with one of the girls. They were escorted from the building, crying with fear and relief.

In a statement read to the court, the girl’s mother described how “time stood still” when she arrived to collect her to realize she was still inside with the knifeman.

Terrified, she called her grandparents and screamed that her daughter was dead, only to later find her alive. They suffer from flashbacks, she said, adding that her hair had “fallen out because of the trauma”.

Several relatives of the victims left the courtroom, some in tears, before Heer detailed the gruesome pathological evidence of their injuries, which the Guardian has chosen not to publish. Some had suffered dozens of heavily inflicted stab wounds.

Heer said Rudakubana was taken to a police station after his arrest, where he was heard saying: “I’m so glad those kids are dead … it makes me happy.”

This was one of a number of “unsolicited comments” caught on CCTV footage or written down at the time, Deer said. He was also heard to say: “So happy, six-year-old. It’s good they’re dead, yes” and: “I don’t care, I feel neutral.”

A chemical weapons expert concluded that the ricin found in Rudakubana’s bedroom was actively toxic, but there is no evidence that it was ever used.

He had bought enough castor beans, the ingredient used to make the toxin, to produce up to 12,000 fatal inhalations if he had completed the process of distilling it, the court was told.

The mass stabbing, one of the worst attacks on children in recent British history, was not declared a terrorist incident because detectives found no evidence that it was motivated by religion, politics or ideology.

A public inquiry will examine the missed opportunities to stop Rudakubana, who had been referred three times to Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism programme, which did not believe he posed a threat.

It can now be revealed that Rudakubana was caught with a knife on a bus two years before the Southport attack. But instead of arresting him, the police took Rudakubana home and advised his mother to keep knives out of his reach.

Two months later, in May 2022, his parents asked the police for help to cope with the teenager when his behavior escalated again. Each time his case was referred to local security authorities.

Rudakubana launched a frenzied knife attack on the Southport dance class, which took place in the first week of the school holidays, after buying two 20cm knives on Amazon days earlier.

The killer was not in court to hear the words of his victims. The parents of a girl who suffered life-threatening injuries after being attacked twice by Rudakubana compared the scene to “a war zone”.

“There was a girl lying on the ground wearing the same clothes as his daughter, but her injuries were so severe that he didn’t recognize her,” Deer said of the girl’s father. “He had to ask this little girl if she had a brother and what his name was. She replied.”

The parents said this was “one of many, many moments that tortures both of us.”

Serena Kennedy, Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, described Rudakubana’s actions as a “brutal” and “sadistic” attack, adding: I know the verdict and sentencing today will not take away the distress and trauma suffered by the victims and their families. , how can it?

“These events have affected and will continue to affect the victims and their lives every day forever.”