The mother of one of the Southport attack victims has remembered her dance-loving daughter in her first interview since the nine-year-old was killed.
Alice da Silva Aguiar was murdered alongside Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.
Portuguese-born Alex Aguiar, mother of Alice, also told the Liverpool Echo the local community had been “incredible” in supporting her and her husband Sergio in the aftermath of the attack and the loss of their daughter.
“Everyone has been incredible, people who don’t know us and we’re not from here and we’ve got so much help,” she said.
Ms Aguiar says she now sees Southport as her home.
“People have been very kind, wanting to help us, we didn’t expect that.
“We feel at home and we don’t feel like we have to go back.”
In her first media interview since the knife attack, the 34-year-old paid tribute to her daughter, who loved dancing and had started baby ballet when she was 16 months old.
“When she was four, she went to Southport Dance Academy and from then on Heidi [Liddle] was her ballet teacher,” Ms Aguiar told the Liverpool Echo.
“She started doing street dance two years ago in the same dance academy but then she stopped after Heidi went off on maternity leave.
“She was fuming.
“She kept on doing ballet on Saturdays and then she used to street dance.
“On Thursdays she would do cheerleading at the YMCA and the choir in the school every Tuesday.”
Heidi Liddle was one of the two adults, along with class instructor Leanne Lucas, present at the dance class when attacker Axel Rudakubana entered the Hart Space on the small business estate on July 29 2024.
Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January for the murders of the three girls, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as Ms Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Over the past few months, Ms Aguiar has been focusing her efforts on projects to build a legacy for Alice, which she told the Echo she would be sharing in the coming months.
Additional reporting by PA Media
