A YOUNG girl sat “bleeding in silence” to save her sister after they were both stabbed during the Southport massacre, an inquiry heard.
The innocent siblings were enjoying a Taylor Swift dance class last summer when Axel Rudakubana stormed in.
PAA public inquiry into Axel Rudakubana’s crimes is taking place[/caption]
He murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and injured other children in the horror.
The mum of the two sisters told a public inquiry that her eldest, who had already been stabbed, saw “pure fear” on her sibling’s face as she crouched while Rudakubana stood over her with his knife raised.
She said: “Our eldest, just a child herself and already injured, dragged her sister in front of her to protect her.”
Their eldest daughter was stabbed again before the girls scrambled to escape and became separated, she told the inquiry.
She said: “In the scramble to get out our youngest had become stuck with two other little girls on the landing, there were no adults with them at this time.
“On the landing, one of the little girls grabbed her hand and put it on the railing, she told her to run and that is when he stabbed her in the back.
“She was able to run down the stairs and she escaped. They called her the ‘little girl who entered the house last’.
“That was our youngest, she saved herself, guided by another child’s hand, and protected by her big sister’s bravery.”
The mum told how her partner drove to the community centre after discovering what was unfolding.
He arrived to find his “deeply traumatised” youngest daughter in the house the group of youngsters fled to.
The couple’s eldest was hidden by a van bravely applying pressure to her own wounds.
The mum said: “I had to drive for 20 minutes not knowing if my daughters were alive. When I reached Hart Street the fear hit me like a wall.
“When I found them our youngest kept reassuring me that she was okay. She never told us she was injured.
“In that moment as a (frightened girl), who had just been attacked, she put our needs above her own. She stayed silent about her own pain because she could see how badly her sister was hurt.
“Due to the extent of our eldest’s injuries we made the decision to leave our youngest with her grandad.
“Looking back, it breaks me to know she sat there, bleeding, not asking for help, simply because she didn’t want to take anyone’s attention away from her sister.
“When her injuries were discovered she was rushed to be with us. The feeling of guilt of leaving her there, not knowing, will never leave me.”
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]
Another mum told the inquiry her daughter was one of the last girls to escape the building alive and “had to advocate for herself and find her own way out”.
She said: “She tells us vividly about how she chose to wait and allow others out first because she had already been attacked and didn’t want them to be.
“She told them to run and not scream – advice she remembered being told when there had been a gas leak at her school.
“Clustered at the top of the stairs, she was attacked again.”
The public inquiry is examining whether the attack could or should have been prevented given what was known about the killer.
Following the horror, it emerged the killer 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.
A rapid review into his contact with Prevent found his case should have been kept open.
It also concluded Rudakubana should have been referred to Channel, another anti-terror scheme.
The inquiry has been split into two phases, with the first focusing on the circumstances leading to the attack and Rudakubana’s contact with Prevent.
Retired senior judge Sir Adrian Fulford, who is leading the review, will examine how young people are “drawn into extreme violence” during the second phase.
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