Taylor Alert – All the chilling signs Axel Rudakubana would go on to kill – from attacking pupils with a hockey stick aged 13 to murdering three girls and harming eight others at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport

Axel Rudakubana’s terrifying and deadly knife rampage was not the first time he had launched a violent assault on young children, it can now be revealed.

Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court from today charged with 16 offences, including three counts of murder.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29, 2024. 

The defendant – aged 17 at the time of the attack – admitted the girls’ murders as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

He 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.

Billed as a stage school ‘superstar’ when he appeared as Doctor Who in a BBC Children in Need advert aged only 11, the first chilling warning took place just two years later.

When he was about 13, a hooded Rudakubana burst into his school while barred from the premises for bringing in a knife, brandished a hockey stick he had produced from his backpack and began attacking pupils.

The raging future killer was only disarmed after being bravely overpowered by a teacher.

Axel Rudakubana is pictured in a custody image shortly after his arrest following his rampage

Axel Rudakubana’s terrifying and deadly knife rampage was not the first time he had launched a violent assault on young children

The future killer – who later featured in a Children In Need advert dressed as the Doctor aged 11 (pictured) – had launched a horror attack against fellow pupils when he was just 13

A few years later and Rudakubana would go on another rampage, this time killing three young girls (he is pictured in an court)

Victims: Bebe King (left), six, Elsie Dot Stancombe (centre), seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar (right), nine,  died during the mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport

At the time of the hockey stick attack, Rudakubana – born in Cardiff to parents who moved to the UK from Rwanda – had been suspended for bringing a knife into Range High School in Formby, former classmates told the Mail.

Just as with his murderous assault on the Southport dance studio on July 29, he took advantage of doors being unlocked.

While it is understood that one boy suffered a broken wrist when he attacked classmates, it is not clear whether police were informed.

But contemporaries at the school say Rudakubana – who they recall as a quiet ‘loner’ – was never seen there again.

He is understood to have later spent time in a children’s home.

But in the run-up to the dance studio murders the then 17-year-old was spending most of his time at his parents’ house in the village of Banks, on the outskirts of Southport.

After Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder, Liverpool Crown Court was told had been diagnosed with autism and been ‘unwilling to leave the house and communicate with family for a period of time’.

But the horrifying truth of what he was doing in his bedroom was only revealed following his arrest. 

On another occasion, pupils filmed him attempting to attack a teacher during a lesson, having to be restrained by three classmates. 

Analysis of a suspicious substance found in a sealed container his room showed he had been manufacturing the biological toxin ricin.

As little as 0.5mg can kill a human.

Rudakubana had also downloaded terrorist material in the form of a document entitled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual.

The academic analysis, written by a former CIA officer, quotes the original training document at length. It is an offence under terror legislation to download or possess it without reasonable excuse.

‘Loner’ Rudakubana burst into his school aged 13 while barred from the premises for bringing in a knife, brandished a hockey stick before attacking pupils

Pictured are police and emergency teams in Southport after Rudakubana rampage in 2024

The killings shocked the community of Southport. Pictured are mourners embracing each other at a memorial service in August, 2024

Rudakubana is seen covering his face during one of his court appearances at Liverpool Crown Court in August 

However, both disturbing discoveries were kept secret for three months when Rudakubana was finally charged under both the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and the Terrorism Act 2000. 

While police have been at pains to stress that the dance studio attack had not been declared terror-related, Tory MPs demanded to know why the public had ‘not been told the truth’ sooner.

His family moved to Britain from Rwanda in 2002, initially living in Cardiff, where Axel was born.

They then moved to the Merseyside seaside resort of Southport in 2013, where his father Alphonse worked as a taxi driver.

Following today’s guilty pleas, more can now be revealed about how a former stage school star who aged 11 featured as Doctor Who in a BBC Children in Need advert had turned into a murderous recluse just six years later.

Rudakubana, a former stage school star who featured in a BBC Children in Need advert at 11 

The future killer appeared in the ad dressed as Doctor Who, standing outside a Tardis

Rudakubana is seen in another shot of the Children in Need advert – six years before his killing spree in Southport 

In 2017 he was pictured receiving the ‘performer of the week’ award at the Southport branch of Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts, set up by the Birds of a Feather star.

At the same time, Rudakubana was also part of a local youth drama group through which he performed on a West End show at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

The drama group also created ‘their own movie’ which was reportedly shown at a Vue cinema where the children were walked down a red carpet.

In 2018, as exclusively revealed by Mail Online, he was filmed emerging from the Tardis in David Tennant’s trademark trenchcoat and tie – before urging the nation to help children by getting involved in fundraising.

He was cast in the Children in Need clip after being billed as a ‘superstar’ by a talent agency run by a former Premier League footballer’s wife.

Ology Kids Casting based in Ormskirk, Lancashire – close to Southport – is co-run by Laura Beckford, wife of former Everton footballer Jermaine Beckford, and her older brother Andrew.

Before his killing spree, Rudakubana (pictured as a boy) had downloaded terrorist material in the form of a document entitled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual.

Pictured is where Rudakubana’s horror killing spree took place, as he stabbed young children to death while they danced at Hart Space

Forensic police are seen following Rudakubana’s deadly rampage in Southport 

A police officer is seen placed floral tributes to the girls killed by Rudakubana in Southport 

The 45-second video is understood to have been shot on location in nearby Blackpool in early 2018.

In it, Rudakubana tells viewers ‘It’s that time of year again’ before advising on how best to raise money for Children In Need including dressing ‘as every Doctor Who ever’.

Ology has declined to comment, but managers are understood to have been ‘very upset’ at learning of the association.

Meanwhile BBC sources have stressed that Rudakubana never had any ‘affiliation’ with Children in Need projects.

By now he had joined his elder brother at Range High School in Formby despite it being over ten miles from his family home.

Classmates recall him having little to do with other children there – in stark contrast to his friendly, ‘smiley’ elder brother.

‘He was just weird, he wasn’t the type of person you remembered joining in with things,’ one told the Mail.

‘Just a bit of a loner.’

Rudakubana (pictured as a boy) was described as a ‘loner’ by pupils from his former school

Rudakubana is pictured in an artist’s court sketch, flanked by two guards 

Rudakubana leaves Liverpool Magistrates’ Court in a prison van on August 1, 2024 

Pictured are police officers guarding Liverpool Magistrates’ Court during the hearing 

One shocking video seen by the Mail shows him being restrained by fellow pupils as he apparently attempts to attack the class teacher.

Sources said Rudakubana was suspended for bringing a knife to school in 2020 – only to turn up and attack pupils with a hockey stick while wearing a hooded top.

‘I remember we’d come out of PE, the doors were always open so people could go out for football or whatever,’ one classmate said.

‘He was just there, stood by the doors looking a bit weird.

‘There was a teacher saying “I’m not going to hurt you, you’re not allowed to be here”.’

But instead, Rudakubana pushed his way onto a school corridor and ‘went round beating people up’.

‘He only stopped when two teachers managed to get hold of him,’ the classmate said.

‘He never went back to the school and we never heard about him again.

‘When we heard it was Axel who had attacked the dance studio we all said ‘Oh my God!’

‘Thank goodness it was only a hockey stick he brought in that day.’

People make bubbles as they gather to mourn victims of the Southport murders 

The horse-drawn hearse arrives for a celebration of Elsie Dot Stancombe at St John’s Church, on August 23, 2024 in Birkdale

Huge crowds gathered at a vigil near Hart Street, Southport, where three children were killed by Rudakubana

The Southport killings later prompted days of unrest and riots across the UK. Pictured are officers in Rotherham dealing with one incident of disorder during the rioting in August 

The Rudakubana family moved to their current address, a £170,000 three bedroom terraced house, in 2018.

The family are said to be regular church-goers and his mother Laetitia appears to be a practising Christian with a white dove and various entries for evangelical ministers on a Facebook page in her name.

His father is a keen exponent of karate.

The family has since been rehoused and are in hiding.

Alphonse Rudakubana, 48, is a taxi driver who in December 2018, listed his job as ‘trader’ and nationality as British.

An article in the Southport Visitor described how Alphonse had passed his black belt in karate, saying he had started training in his native Rwanda in 1996, where he had studied for around three years before moving to Britain in 2002.

He continued to train in Cardiff at three different karate clubs before he moved to Southport in 2013, where he continued his martial arts training.

He travelled all over the UK to benefit from training under the top instructors, according to the article, and competed at the ESA National Kata Championships in Grimsby in 2013.

The article added: ‘It has been a long road for Alphonse, spanning nineteen years, two continents and three countries, but he firmly believes passing his dan grade was one of the greatest achievements of his life.’

Court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook of Axel Rudakubana, 18, appearing by video-link from Belmarsh prison at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court in October 

Rudakubana’s mother, Laetitia Muzayire, appears to have spent time as a Christian minister.

She was listed on the page of a group called Re-forma, which seeks ‘to ensure that millions of pastors and church leaders are biblically-trained by providing a recognised, global standard for outcome- and impact-based assessment.’

In Cardiff, she had worked for the university’s Dentistry School where she took part in a charity quiz in March 2012 to raise money for Sport Relief.

She commemorated the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which an estimated 800,000 people from the Tutsi ethnic group died, in a Facebook posting showing a candle in 2017.

It read: ‘Our families, our friends, our kids, our people. Forever in our hearts.’

Her Facebook page features a white dove as the profile picture and an entry from March 2019, showed Muzayire raising money for a charity in the United States.

She also made a comment on the page of Christian preacher David Turner in April 2019, saying: ‘Pray for my family for more of the spirit of god.’

The following August she commented ‘alleluia’ on the page of a former Pentecostal pastor who runs a religious organisation in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Full details of what motivated Rudakubana to commit mass murder have yet to be revealed, as has an explanation for his shocking descent from budding stage school star to class troublemaker and finally notorious killer.

But as those who knew him struggle to come to terms with his infamy, questions about whether warning signs were missed are certain to grow.