SOUTHPORT terrorist Axel Rudakubana chillingly told police “I’m glad they’re dead” after murdering three girls in a rampage at a Taylor Swift dance class.
The 18-year-old stabbed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, to death on July 29.
ReutersAxel Rudakubana admitted murdering three girls in a rampage[/caption]
PAElsie Dot was stabbed to death at a dance class[/caption]
PABebe King, 6, was among the youngsters stabbed to death[/caption]
PAAlice Dasilva Aguiar was also left dead in the rampage[/caption]
Gruesome details of the slaughter have been heard in court for the first time today at Rudakubana’s sentencing hearing.
The shameless triple killer has so far caused further anguish for the victims’ families with his courtroom stunts.
Rudakubana, who had refused to speak during his previous hearings, was removed from dock shortly after the sentencing began shouting that he was “ill” and needed a paramedic.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the warped teen told police “I’m glad they’re dead” as he was held in a custody suite following the rampage.
Prosecutors today told how the injuries suffered by his victims are “difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature”.
This includes stabbing multiple people in the back as they tried to escape.
The court earlier heard Rudakubana had a “sickening interest in death” and had made chilling searches for school massacres before carrying out the rampage.
His morbid fascination saw him flagged three times to anti-terror programme Prevent but no further action was taken.
As a result, the killer was free to storm the Hart Space community centre and begin senselessly knifing terrified children and adults.
Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and ten of attempted murder.
The teen, who had been due to stand trial before the dramatic U-turn, also admitted two terror offences after police found ricin and an Al-Qaeda manual at his home.
Despite this, police are still not treating the July attack as terror-related.
The horror unfolded last summer as 26 excited children gathered for the dance class to kick off the summer holidays.
The two-hour event had been organised by instructors Leanne Lucas and Heidi Liddle at The Hart Space.
Just three miles away, Rudakubana had armed himself with a 20cm knife as he prepared to put his murderous plan into action.
Chilling footage showed the killer pacing outside his home before being picked up in a taxi.
Just 30 minutes later, Rudakubana arrived at the community centre as the children sang Taylor Swift songs and made friendship bracelets.
Leanne opened a window due to the summer heat and saw the masked teen outside but thought nothing of it.
But seconds later, the door opened and Rudakubana stormed into the class and began attacking children and adults at random.
Screams rang out as the killer teen systematically made his way through the room stabbing his victims with the black-handled Cerbera kitchen knife.
As the desperate children tried to flee, Rudakubana chased after them and slashed them from behind.
Hero dance teacher Leanne was stabbed in the arms, neck and back as she used her body to shield young girls from the knifeman.
Her colleague Heidi Liddle escaped uninjured after bravely locking some of the children inside a toilet.
Businessman Jonathan Hayes, who was working in the office next door, was attacked after he ran inside and bravely tried to stop the carnage.
Rudakubana could be seen pacing 30 minutes before he murdered three children
At 11.57am – 12 minutes after the rampage began – police stormed the scene.
Officers found Rudakubana holding the large, bloodied kitchen knife and he was arrested.
After the horror attack, the teen said “I’m glad they’re dead” as he was held in a custody suite.
Police searching the killer’s home found a shocking cache of weapons – including knives bought on Amazon and crossbow bolts.
His purchase on the online shop when he was 17 came despite his history of violence.
Rudakubana was also able to buy equipment to make deadly poison ricin, which was also found at his home.
The Sun told how he exploited limited checks allowing blades to be sent without ID, with Amazon now launching an urgent probe.
Chillingly, just one week before the attack, Rudakubana is feared to have plotted a similar attack on his old school.
He booked a taxi – the same way he travelled to the Taylor Swift-themed dance class – under a fake name from his home to take him to the Range High School.
It is believed he’d been planning to target pupils on the last day of term as they broke up for the summer holidays.
But he was stopped from making his journey when his dad ran out and intervened.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and has an older brother.
He moved to Banks, a village in Lancashire located a few miles from Southport, in 2013.
As a child, Rudakubana displayed vicious behaviour in school as his obsession with violence grew.
Timeline of events related to the Southport stabbings
AXEL Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, and 10 counts of attempted murder.
Here is a timeline of events relating to the case:
2002: Rudakubana’s father Alphonse moves to the UK from Rwanda, according to an interview he gave to his local newspaper in Southport in 2015.
August 7, 2006: Rudakubana is born in Cardiff, Wales.
2013: The family – including Rudakubana’s father, mother and older brother – move from Wales to Banks in Lancashire, a few miles from Southport.
July 29, 2024: Shortly before midday, a knifeman enters a dance class at The Hart Space in Hart Street in Southport.
Bebe, Elsie and Alice are fatally wounded. Eight other children are injured, as are instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Police say they have detained a male and seized a knife.
Within hours, claims spread online that the suspect is an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat in 2023.
Some claims include an alleged identity.
July 30, 2024: In the evening, a peaceful vigil is held outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue, where flowers are laid in memory of those who died.
Shortly after the vigil, a separate protest begins outside the town’s mosque in St Luke’s Road.
People throw items towards the mosque, property is damaged and police vehicles are set on fire.
July 31, 2024: Demonstrators gather in Whitehall, London, for an “Enough Is Enough” protest.
Flares and cans are thrown at police and more than 100 people are arrested.
Disorder also breaks out in Hartlepool, County Durham, and Aldershot, Hampshire.
August 1, 2024: Police announce that Rudakubana has been charged with the murders of Bebe, Elsie Dot and Alice, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article.
He is not named by police because of his age.
He appears in court in Liverpool and Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary KC rules he can be named, as he is due to turn 18 in a week.
He initially smiled on entering the courtroom – then kept his face covered by his sweatshirt for the remainder of the proceedings before the case was adjourned.
Later that evening, demonstrators gather outside a hotel in Newton Heath, Manchester.
August 2, 2024: Three police officers are taken to hospital after disorder in Sunderland.
August 3, 2024: There are scenes of violence during planned protests across the UK, including in Liverpool, Hull, Nottingham and Belfast.
August 4, 2024: Disorder continues, including outside a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where masked demonstrators launch lengths of wood and sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers.
August 5, 2024: The Government holds an emergency Cobra meeting in the wake of the disorder and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vows to “ramp up criminal justice”.
That evening, a peaceful vigil is held in Southport, a week on from the killings. Police deal with disorder in Plymouth, Devon and Darlington, County Durham.
August 7, 2024: Prison sentences for those involved in the unrest begin to be handed out. Derek Drummond, 58, is the first person to be jailed for violent disorder at Liverpool Crown Court, where he is sentenced to three years.
More than 100 protests are planned for across the country, with counter-demonstrations taking place, but the majority of police forces report very little trouble.
October 29, 2024: Merseyside Police announces Rudakubana will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink the next day charged with production of a biological toxin, Ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
October 30, 2024: Rudakubana appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink from HMP Belmarsh to face the two new charges.
He holds his sweater over the bottom half of his face and does not respond when asked to confirm his name.
November 13, 2024: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court via videolink. He covers his face with his grey sweatshirt and does not speak throughout the hearing.
About 20 family members of victims sit in the public gallery. The case is adjourned until December 12, when a preparatory hearing will take place.
January 20, 2025: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court for the first day of his trial where he pleads guilty to all 16 charges, including the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
The teen, who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, left Range High School in Formby in around 2019 over claims he brought a blade into class and made threats to attack another pupil.
Police were called in and the Year 9 student – then aged just 13 – was sent home and later expelled.
But he returned to his former school armed with a hockey stick and a “hit list” of students he wanted to attack.
Rudakubana was then sent to a specialist school but teachers became concerned over his behaviour.
His first referral to Prevent came in 2019 when he was aged 13 after he used computers at his own school to search for material on a school massacre.
Two years later, he was flagged again after viewing material on previous terror attacks – including those in London in 2017.
TERROR FEARS
Although there were no concerns over a particular ideology or religious hatred, his obsession with violence had caused fears.
But he was not found to have posed a terrorism risk and therefore did not reach the threshold for intervention by Prevent.
After one of the referrals, it was recommended that Rudakubana be referred to other services but is not known if this happened.
Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said police responded to five calls from his home address – between October 2019 and May 2022 – relating to concerns about his behaviour.
The attack in Southport sparked riots across the country – despite the local community and families of the victims calling for calm.
It came after false claims were spread online that the alleged killer was an asylum seeker.
Sir Keir Starmer said this week that UK will “rightly demand answers” over the horror as he vowed the government will leave “no stone unturned in that pursuit”.
Speaking in Downing Street after the government announced a public inquiry, the PM said failings by the state “leap off the page”.
But he continued to deny there had been a “cover up” in the case – although admitted it was “clearly wrong” Rudakubana was deemed not to meet the threshold for intervention from Prevent.
While Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the inquiry would also “consider the wider challenge of rising youth violence and extremism”.
Rudakubana, pictured starring in a BBC advert for Children in Need, attacked children at random
GettyTributes left to the victims in Southport[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
