Taylor Alert – You took our daughter, her life, her future and everything she could have been. There is no greater pain: Parents of the little girls murdered by Axel Rudakubana say they are left with ‘a lifetime of grief’

The parents of the little girls who were murdered by Axel Rudakubana after he launched a frenzied attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class have told how they have been left with a ‘lifetime of grief’. 

The heartbreaking victim impact statements, from the families of those who died as well as the children who miraculously survived, were read out at Rudakubana’s sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court today.

Rudakubana was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 52 years after admitting the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport on July 29 2024.

The evil killer also admitted the attempted murder of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

He further 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.

In an emotional victim impact statement read out by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC, Jenni Stancombe, the mother of Elsie Dot, told Rudakubana he was ‘pure evil’ and had stolen her daughter’s future.

‘That day we lost our beloved daughter, the three of us lost our best friend,’ she said. ‘But we are not going to stand here and list everything you have taken away from us, because we refuse to give you the satisfaction of hearing it. 

‘We will not let you know anything about her because you don’t deserve to know the extraordinary person she was. You know what you have done, and we hope the weight of that knowledge haunts you every single day.’

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 

Evil Southport Axel Rudakubana faces a life sentence for murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class 

The statement added: ‘The nature of your actions is beyond contempt. You deliberately chose that place, fully aware that there would be no parents present, fully aware that those girls were vulnerable and unable to protect themselves. This was not an act of impulse; it was premeditated.

‘You chose that place, that time, and those circumstances, knowing that when they arrived, all we would see was the aftermath of the devastation caused.

‘We were robbed of the opportunity to protect our girls. If we’d been there, this would never have happened, and the outcome would have been vastly different. What you did was not only cruel and pure evil; it was the act of a coward.

‘Though you have stolen our daughter from us, you will not take away our determination to honour her memory we will carry her love, positivity and her legacy forward, no matter how much pain you have caused.

‘To you My Lord, they say this: you took our daughter, her life, her future and everything she could have been. There is no greater loss and no greater pain. his actions have left us with a lifetime of grief.

‘We hope he uses his time in prison to reflect on the gravity of what he has done, though if we go from his actions and behaviour during this process we have little faith that he will ever feel the remorse he should. There is nothing that can undo the damage he has caused. 

‘Perhaps he will have the opportunity to contemplate the fear and terror he inflicted upon those girl and we sincerely want the consequences to reflect the irreparable damage he has inflicted.’

Dance instructor Leanne Lucas, who was stabbed five times in the attack, said she was surviving for the victims

In a statement read by prosecutors, Alice’s parents, Alexandra and Sergio Aguiar, said: ‘Living without Alice is not living at all. It’s a state of permanent numbness.’ 

In a statement read by prosecutors, Alice’s parents, Alexandra and Sergio Aguiar, said: ‘Living without Alice is not living at all. It’s a state of permanent numbness.

‘We can’t see her picture and videos, they take us back to a time when we were so happy and now we’re in constant pain.

‘We have her clothes, her teddies and other belongings. We’ll keep them safe and often hug them when we miss Alice.

‘We also have the cat to hug. Alice’s cat. Niko misses her so much. We all do and will miss our perfect baby girl forever.’

They added: ‘We were so lucky and privileged to have her. Every day felt like a gift.

‘Alice was a beautiful girl, perfect in every day – she loved her school, her friends, music, dance, colourful pens and friendship bracelets.

‘She loved Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter. 

The court also heard victim impact statements from those who survived the tragedy that shocked the nation to its core.

Police investigate on Hart Street in Southport on July 29 after the attacks at the dance class

In a heart-rending victim impact statement read by her father in court, a nine-year-old survivor said: ‘It has been very hard to deal with what happened to me at Hart Space. I struggle with my emotions, and I have scars that I know will be with me forever, but I want to look forward.

‘When people in school asked me ‘do you wish you weren’t there that day’ I said that, in some ways, I wish I wasn’t, but also, if I wasn’t there, someone else would have been stabbed and they could have died, so I’m glad I might have stopped someone else getting hurt.’

Her father told the court that ‘her words both horrify us and make us immeasurably proud’, adding: ‘Our daughter is strong. Our daughter is positive. Our daughter is brave. Our daughter is everything that Axel Rudakubana is not. She is our hero.’ 

A victim statement was also read from the first child Rudakubana stabbed as he launched his attack.

The girl, aged 10 at the time of the attack, said: ‘I first thought that the man who stabbed me was a cleaner and when I saw him and what was happening I thought it was a prank.

‘I realised it wasn’t a prank when I saw blood coming out of me. I remember everything being fuzzy and everything that was going through my mind was about my family and friends.

‘I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to die, I have got to get out of here’.

She added: ‘When I was outside of the building I was thinking what am I going to do as my phone was inside … I had so much blood coming out of me and I was trying to scream, but I was struggling to scream.

Axel Rudakubana, pictured during an earlier hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, is being sentenced today 

A prison van containing Rudakubana arriving at Liverpool Crown Court for his sentencing

'Mum was screaming, I remember everything that happened with the paramedic and then going to hospital in the air ambulance.

'I was holding my mum's hand and I just felt heavy and sick. My entire body was in pain. I was in hospital for 12 days and at night I kept waking up with nightmares. I kept thinking someone would get into my room.'

The child had to have her spleen removed and skin grafts.

She continued: 'I have a scar on my tummy and two scars on my back, and one on my side from the attack and the treatment.

'If I see anyone who looks like him or wearing a green top, I feel worried and scared.

'I still have nightmares once or twice a week where I replay what happened and wake up and feel a bit on edge.

'I think about all the other children that were there and I feel guilty that I wasn't able to help the children that died and I think, 'Was there anything I could have done to help them?''

At a sentencing hearing filled with emotion, the mother of one of the injured girls said that she got her daughter tickets for the Taylor Swift themed event after she failed to get tickets for the American star's concert in Liverpool.

The woman described how she dropped her daughter off at The Hart Space and spotted a black male, wearing a hoodie and a face mask.

She said: 'Something about the way he was acting unnerved me.'

The woman said: 'Within a few minutes, I heard screaming' and said she saw girls running down the street, including her daughter. She said her daughter had blood on her legs which she first thought was make-up.

She said her daughter was 'struggling to breathe and she didn't want to die'.

The woman described how doctors saved her daughter's life but had to remove her spleen.

She said: 'At one point I thought if (she) died, I couldn't live without her. I thought (she) would blame me for taking her to the event.'

Dance instructor Leanne Lucas, who was stabbed five times in the attack but survived, said: 'I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died.'

She concluded her statement by saying: 'He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey.

'To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible.

'For Alice, Elsie, Bebe... and the surviving girls, I'm surviving for you.'

The parents of one of the injured children said in a statement that Rudakubana had shown no remorse.

Axel Rudakubana skulks in the back of a taxi on his way to murder three young girls

Rudakubana is then seen walking towards the Hart Space building where the dance class was being held

They said: 'This has always been about power and control. This person has abused his power as an adult in the most extreme of ways - to exert planned, sustained and unimaginable horror over the most powerless in our society, our children.'

The couple added: 'He will not win though. He will not gain the notoriety he so desperately craves. He will not be remembered.

'When we think of Southport, we will think of the girls. Their bravery. Their strength.'

A statement from Heidi Liddle, one of the class's instructors, said she 'felt completely helpless' after the attack because she 'didn't know how many children were hurt or where they were'.

In a statement read in court by the prosecutor, Ms Liddle said: 'I felt isolated from everyone as I felt like I couldn't leave my home. I was in tears constantly and didn't feel safe in my own home.'

She went on to say: 'The only time I left the house in the coming weeks was to go and see Leanne and the girls at hospital or to attend the funerals of the three girls, which was heartbreaking.

'I replayed the incident over and over in my mind, changing the sequence of events so that myself and the little girl I was with in the toilet, were stabbed and killed.

'I struggled with everyday things, like letting the dogs out, doing any activity that involved me being hunched over, such as hoovering, drying my hair and putting my daughter to bed in her cot, as I envisioned him coming behind me and stabbing me in the back.'

The mother of one of the survivor's, who hid in the toilet with Ms Liddle, said the class instructor saved her daughter's life.

She said: 'As I approached the house where the kids ran to for safety, all I could hear were screams. My daughter wasn't there, and it quickly became apparent she was still in the building with the knifeman.

'Following the arrival of the emergency services, I ran into the building after them to be with my daughter who I already believed was seriously injured or dead. The police told me I couldn't go in the room.

'To my relief I turned around... and saw her standing there with the other event leader, Heidi.

'Heidi saved my girl that day by following her to the toilet after she headed there instead of down the stairs and out the door with the other children.'

Before the statements were read, Ms Heer told the court the defendant was referred to Prevent for researching American school shootings, the London Bridge terror attack and uploading pictures of Colonel Gaddafi to Instagram.

Details of his background were read out, including an incident in October 2019 in which he contacted Childline and asked: 'What should I do if I want to kill somebody?'

Mr Justice Goose ordered Rudakubana to be removed from the dock shortly after the start of the sentencing hearing because he had been repeatedly shouting.

Horrific CCTV was played to the court including footage showing one child trying to leave the building but being pulled back in.

Gasps and sobs were heard from the public gallery as the girl was seen to re-emerge and collapse on the floor outside.

One woman in the public gallery put her hand over her face and sobbed, being comforted by those sitting next to her, as the video was played.

Family members were given the option to leave court before CCTV was played, but all remained in the court.

More than 30 members of the victims' families were in the public gallery of the court for the sentencing and the court heard there were others in an annexe.

Sentencing, the judge, Mr Justice Goose, said: 'He will serve almost the whole of his life in custody. I consider it likely he will never be released and he will be in custody for all of his life.'

The judge said he 'must accept' that there was no evidence he acted for a terrorist cause but added that his actions were the 'equivalent' of terrorist matters.

He said Rudakubana targeted these children for the 'horrific extreme violence he was intent upon'.

The judge continued: 'At 11.45am he arrived, walked into the building up the stairs where he could hear the sound of happy children, in his mind with the intention to murder as many of them as he physically could.

'He wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.'

Mr Justice Goose added: 'It was such extreme violence... it is difficult to comprehend why it was done.

'I am sure Rudakubana had the settled determination to carry out these offences and had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child - all 26 of them.'