Today, Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, will receive his sentencing for the brutal murders of three young girls at a dance class inspired by Taylor Swift.
During his trial, the teenage perpetrator, who displayed an obsession with genocide and had maintained silence in court, suddenly confessed to all 16 charges on the trial’s commencement day.
In a surprising turn of events, the 18-year-old, donning a facemask and showing defiance by remaining seated, reversed his initial plea of not guilty to guilty just as his four-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court was set to commence.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack at the Taylor Swift-themed class in The Hart Space just before midday on July 29.
He finally admitted murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in the worst targeted attack on children in Britain since the Dunblane massacre in 1996.
Rudakubana took their lives after he stormed a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space in Southport armed with a knife shortly before midday on July 29, 2024.
He also admitted the attempted murder of eight other children, who can’t be named for legal reasons, and the class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
The son of a refugee from Rwanda, who was born in the UK, also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife on the day of the attack, 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.
The terrorism offence Rudakubana admitted relates to a PDF file entitled ‘Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual’, which he is said to have possessed between August 29, 2021 and July 30 last year.
But his shock guilty pleas denied the families of the children he murdered – and the others he tried to kill – the chance to be in the room at Liverpool Crown Court to hear him admit his guilt.
Axel Rudakubana, pictured, will today find out how many years he will be behind bars
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was one of the three children killed in the knife attack in Southport
Bebe King, six, was also killed in the knife attack at The Hart Space in Southport last July
Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, was among the three little girls killed in the attack in Southport
Flowers and tributes outside the Atkinson Art Centre Southport, after three children were fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club
The ricin, a deadly poison, and the document were found after police searched his home in Banks, Lancashire, where he lived with his parents, who are thought to have fled Rwandan genocide.
Officers also found documents about Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on Rudakubana’s devices during searches of his home.
Sources said the material showed an ‘obsession with extreme violence’ but there was no evidence he subscribed to any political or religious ideology or was ‘fighting for a cause’.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed the nation on Tuesday to say Britan faces a new threat of terrorism from ‘extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms’ following the Southport murders.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced an inquiry into the case following Rudakubana’s guilty pleas, including how he ‘came to be so dangerous’ and why Prevent ‘failed to identify the terrible risk’ he posed to others.
Despite a previous conviction for violence, at the age of 17 he was able to order a kitchen knife from Amazon which he used to fatally stab the girls, and Ms Cooper said the Government will ‘bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.’
Unrest erupted across the country in the wake of the Southport attack, with mosques and hotels used for asylum seekers among the locations targeted.
In the hours after the stabbing, information spread online which claimed the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat.
The day after the attack, thousands turned out for a peaceful vigil in Southport, but later a separate protest outside a mosque in the town became violent, with missiles thrown at police and vans set on fire.
At 11 years old, Rudakubana appeared dressed as Doctor Who in a television advert for BBC Children In Need, after being recruited through a casting agency, it is understood.
Police officers at Rudakubana’s home on Old School Close in Banks, Lancashire, last August
A car burns after being overturned during a protest in Middlesbrough on August 4, 2024
Police in front of protesters in Nottingham on August 3,2024 after the Southport killings
Rudakubana’s father Alphonse is believed to have fled Rwanda with Rudakubana’s mother, Laetitia Muzayire, 52
More than 1,000 arrests linked to disorder across the country have been made since the attack, and hundreds have been charged and jailed.
Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, will be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court this morning.
On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer dismissed claims of a Southport ‘cover-up’ today as he insisted there will be a full inquiry into how the state failed to stop the killer going on the rampage.
The PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to ‘demand answers’ over ‘failings’ in the case of Axel Rudakubana.
Sir Keir said it was a ‘devastating moment in our history’ and must be a ‘line in the sand’ for Britain, warning that ‘terrorism has changed’ with the threat of ‘acts of extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms’.
A court artist’s sketch of Axel Rudakubana appearing at Liverpool Crown Court
A prison van believed to contain Axel Rudakubana arriving at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday
The PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to ‘demand answers’ over ‘failings’ in the case of Axel Rudakubana
He stressed that the probe should be ‘unburdened by cultural sensitivities’ and institutions will not be allowed to ‘deflect’ responsibility. ‘I’m angry about it… Nothing will be off the table in this inquiry,’ he said.
However, he flatly rejected allegations of a ‘cover-up’ of terrorist links in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity in July – which was followed by a wave of rioting across the country.
He confirmed he knew about the details ‘as they were emerging’ – rather than in October when extra charges were brought – but could not risk the case collapsing and the ‘vile’ perpetrator walking away free.
‘That is why the law of this country forbade me or anybody else from disclosing details sooner,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be forgiven if I had.’
He added: ‘It was not my personal decision to withhold this information, any more than it was a journalist’s personal decision not to print or write about it.’
Sir Keir said he was under ‘no illusions’ that the lack of ‘trust’ will continue until the state is ‘honest’ about problems and ‘roots them out’.
But he insisted he had been inspired by the response of the Southport community, who rebuilt despite the tragedy being compounded by violence on the streets.
‘Responsibility for the disorder and violence lies with those who perpetrated it,’ he said.
For more on this case, search for ‘The Trial: The Southport Dance class’ wherever you get your podcasts now.
