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The Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been jailed for a minimum of 52 years for the “ferocious” and “sadistic” murders of three young girls and attempted murder 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 all his life” for the “harrowing and atrocious premeditated attack” last summer.
The full horror of his actions was laid bare at Liverpool crown court on Thursday when it emerged that Rudakubana had boasted of his attack shortly after being arrested on 29 July last year.
He was heard to say he was “I’m so glad those kids are dead” and that he did not 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 pleading for medical assistance.
“My chest is hurting … I need to speak to a paramedic,” he shouted, before interrupting the judge, Mr Justice Julian Goose, as he tried to proceed: “Don’t continue! Don’t continue! Don’t continue!”
Rudakubana could not be sentenced to a whole-life order – 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 murder 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 contained 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, holding a 20cm knife, at 11.45am – just 15 minutes before the girls were due to be collected 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 than anything other than sadistic in nature”.
Body-worn footage recorded by police showed the chaotic scenes as officers rushed into the bloodstained building, where Rudakubana was seen “crouching” over the body of one little girl.
One officer is heard to say: “She’s dead” and another yelled “Jesus” as others screamed around them. Moments later, 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 court, the girl’s mother described how “time stood still” as she arrived to collect her to realise she was still inside with the knifeman.
Terrified, she rang her grandparents screaming that her daughter was dead, only to later find her inside alive. They suffer flashbacks, she said, adding that her hair had “fallen out due to the trauma”.
Several relatives of the victims left the courtroom, some in tears, before Heer detailed the horrifying pathological evidence of their injuries, which the Guardian has chosen not to publish. Some had suffered dozens of powerfully inflicted stab wounds.
Heer said Rudakubana was taken to a police station after his arrest, where he was heard to say: “I’m so glad those kids are dead … it makes me happy.”
This was one of a number of “unsolicited comments” recorded on CCTV footage or noted down at the time, Deer said. He was also heard to say: “So happy, six-years-old. It’s a good thing they are dead, yeah” and: “I don’t care, I’m feeling neutral.”
A chemical weapons expert concluded that the ricin found in Rudakubana’s bedroom was actively poisonous but there is no evidence it was ever used.
He had purchased enough caster beans, the ingredient used to make the toxin, to produce up to 12,000 lethal 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 UK history, was not declared as a terrorist incident because detectives found no evidence 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 anti-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. However, instead of arresting him police took Rudakubana home and advised his mother to keep knives out of his reach.
Two months later, in May 2022, his parents pleaded with police for help to cope with the teenager as his behaviour escalated again. Each time his case was referred to local safeguarding officials.
Rudakubana launched a frenzied knife attack at the Southport dance class, taking place during 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 one girl, who suffered life-threatening injuries after being attacked twice by Rudakubana, compared the scene to “a warzone”.
“There was a girl lying on the ground with the same clothes as his daughter but her injuries were so severe he did not recognise 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 answered.”
The parents said this was “one of many, many moments that tortures both of us.”
Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of Merseyside police, described Rudakubana’s actions as “ferocious” and “sadistic” attack, and added: I know that the conviction and sentencing today will not take away the distress, and trauma suffered by the victims and their families, how can it?
“These events have impacted and will continue to impact the victims and their lives every day forever.”
