Southport stabbing trial latest:Axel Rudakubana murdered girls in ‘meticulously planned rampage’, CPS says – UK Times

Southport “will never be the same” after three girls were murdered at a dance class in the town last summer, the MP has said.

Patrick Hurley, the MP for Southport, told BBC Radio 5 Live there is “surprise and shock” across the town after Axel Rudakubana, who was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court today, changed his pleas to guilty after having previously denied murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.

Mr Hurley said: “The community has been healing, the town will obviously never be the same as it has been prior to July.

“There is surprise and shock at the development this morning but we are all hoping throughout the town that the families get the justice and the outcome they need.

“Everybody across the town and the families who are most closely involved and the families of the victims were bracing themselves for the next four weeks.

“It was never going to be an easy time for anybody here.”

Speaking outside court following the guilty pleas entered by Axel Rudakubana, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Ursula Doyle said: “This was an unspeakable attack – one which left an enduring mark on our community and the nation for its savagery and senselessness.

“At the start of the school holidays, a day which should have been one of carefree innocence; of children enjoying a dance workshop and making friendship bracelets, became a scene of the darkest horror as Axel Rudakubana carried out his meticulously planned rampage.

“It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence. He has shown no sign of remorse.

“The prosecution was determined to prove his guilt and I am deeply grateful that today’s plea has spared the families at the heart of this case the pain of having to relive their ordeal through a trial.

“Today, our thoughts are with all those whose lives were altered by what happened on that day.

“Most of all, we think of Elsie, Bebe, and Alice – the three beautiful young girls whose lives were cut short – and wish strength and courage to the families who loved and cherished them.”

Responding to Axel Rudakubana’s guilty plea, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Axel Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to murder and a terrorism charge.

“Will we ever find out the whole truth?”

Rudukabana’s youngest victim, six-year-old Bebe King, died after attending what had been advertised as a fun morning of making bracelets, dancing to Taylor Swift and yoga.

Speaking of their heartbreak, her devastated parents said: “No words can describe the devastation that has hit our family as try to deal with the loss of our little girl Bebe.”

When Axel Rudakubana got into a taxi in summer last year, the country had no clue of the horrors he was about to unleash on the town of Southport – and the resulting backlash which would spread across the UK in the following weeks.

The then 17-year-old travelled by taxi to the Hart Space, where he ambushed a class of children aged between six and 11 who were starting their summer holidays at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Merseyside.

The frenzied attack, launched at around 11.50am on 29 July, was described as like a scene from a disaster film when he targeted the girls while a teacher and a grandfather nearby bravely tried to defend the screaming children.

Our crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin reports:

Axel Rudakubana’s shock change of plea meant the loved ones of his young victims were not present in court to hear him admit his guilt.

And his guilty pleas came as a surprise to the judge, lawyers and press crammed into a packed courtroom at Liverpool Crown Court.

The hearing, expected to deal with legal matters at the start of a four-week trial, instead lasted little more than 15 minutes.

After trial judge Mr Justice Goose came into court at 11.27am, unusually, Stan Reiz KC, defending Rudakubana, asked permission to approach the defendant in the dock.

After a brief, inaudible interaction with the defendant, Mr Reiz asked for the charges to be put again to Rudakubana.

Wearing a face mask, seated with his head almost touching his knees, Rudakubana replied, “guilty” to each of the 16 counts on the indictment.

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.

More than 1,000 arrests linked to disorder across the country have since been made and hundreds charged and jailed.

A profile of Axel Rudakubana’s father, printed in local newspaper the Southport Visiter in 2015 said he was originally from Rwanda, a country that suffered a deadly genocide in the early 1990s, and moved to the UK in 2002.

Rudakubana, the youngest son of the family, was born in Cardiff, where neighbours of the family described a “lovely couple” with a hardworking father and stay-at-home mother to “two boisterous boys”.

In 2013 they moved to Banks, just a few miles outside of Southport, where Rudakubana’s father trained with local martial arts clubs. The family lived in a mid-terrace three-bedroom house in a newly-built cul-de-sac of a dozen or so properties.

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.

The now-deleted clip shows him leaving the Tardis wearing a trench coat and tie to look like the show’s former star David Tennant and offering advice on how best to raise money.

It can now be reported that Axel Rudakubana’s teachers had concerns about his behaviour, and he was excluded from his secondary school for an incident involving a hockey stick.

The teenager, who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, is believed to have left Range High School in Formby in around 2019, before moving to a specialist school, where teachers were reported to be concerned at his violence towards others.

At his first appearance at Liverpool Crown Court, Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, said it was understood Rudakubana had been unwilling to leave the house and communicate with his family for a period of time.

While he was seen by the psychiatrists at the police station, he refused to engage with them, Ms Heer told the court, which heard that Rudakubana had no obvious evidence of mental health disorder which required diversion to hospital.