Axel Rudakubana sentenced to life in prison for murder of three girls in Southport knife attack

Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 52 years for the murder of three girls in Southport last summer.

Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, was sentenced in court today after pleading guilty to the murder of three young girls, aged between six and nine, on Monday.

Justice Goose said the 18-year-old’s sentences will run concurrently, meaning they will be served at same time. The judge concluded that it is highly likely Rudakubana will never be released.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died in the attack at the Taylor Swift-themed class in The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29.

The defendant, 18, admitted their murders as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

He also admitted to the production of a biological toxin, ricin, on or before July 29 and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

Ricin, a deadly poison, and the document were found during searches of the home on Old School Close which he shared with his parents, who are originally from Rwanda.

The terrorism offence relates to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual which he possessed between August 29, 2021 and July 30, 2024.

Rudakubana was not handed a whole life order as he was 17 years old at the time of the attacks.

His minimum custodial sentence for the Southport attack ranks among the longest on record and is believed to be the harshest penalty ever imposed on someone his age.

Justice Goose sentenced the 18-year-old to life in prison with a minimum term of 52 years – this includes the 175 days he has already spent on remand.

During the proceedings today it emerged Rudakubana had been referred to the Government anti-extremism scheme Prevent three times before the murders in July.

In November 2019, a referral was made because the defendant had been researching school shootings during an information technology class. In February 2021, a referral was made following reports that he had uploaded to Instagram two images of Colonel Gadaffi. In April 2021, a referral was made because he had been found researching the London Bridge terror attack.

During the sentencing, the court was shown CCTV of the moments leading up to the horror stabbing.

Deanna Heer KC, leading the prosecution, told the court that children ran into the car park of the venue screaming with the instructor of the dance class making a call to 999.

A police officer arrived at the scene at 11.57am to a large state of panic.

Body-cam footage showed the moment officers confronted Rudakubana, told him to drop his knife and handcuffed him.

Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King’s injuries were deemed so severe that they could not have been saved.

Alice Da Silva Aguiar managed to escape the building and was taken to hospital but died from her injuries the morning after the attack.

Several other children, who cannot be named due to a court order, sustained life-threatening injuries during the attack but survived.

A witness impact statement from Leanne Lucas was read, with the class instructor saying: “As a 36-year-old woman, I cannot stay in my own home alone.

“As a 36-year-old woman I cannot go to work. As a 36-year-old woman I cannot walk down the street without holding my breath as I bypass a person and then glance back to see if they’ve attempted to stab me.

“As a 36-year-old woman I cannot enter a public place without considering how I will get out in the event of an emergency.

“As a 36-year-old woman I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died.

“There was a long period of time after the incident where I felt I had no trust in society.

“I am trying to see the goodness in the world, however the badness has been evidentially proven to me to exist, in plain sight, on our doorsteps, in our community.

“You never think this is going to happen to you, I never thought this was going to happen to me and now my mindset has been altered to it could happen to you and it will probably happen to you.

“I feel that I have lost the ability to accept people now as they are.

“I worked with teenagers, I never would have considered that they would hurt me or hurt younger children.”

“The trauma of being both a victim and a witness has been horrendous.

“There are times when I will spiral into trauma and the effect this has had on those close to me is unforgivable.

“The impact this has had on me can be summed up by one word: trauma. He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey.

“To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible.

“For Alice, Elsie, Bebe… and the surviving girls, I’m surviving for you.”

Justice Goose concluded: “I have read each of the victim personal statements and many have been read out to the court.

“They are all deeply moving. The harm Rudakubana has caused to each family, each child and to the community has been profound and permanent.

“For the families of Elsie, Bebe and Alice, they will never recover from what happened to their daughters.

“For those children and adults he attempted to murder their lives will never be the same.”