The parents of one of the girls murdered in the Southport knife attack have spoken of their heartbreak in their first TV interview, saying their daughter was ‘born to be a star’.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was brutally knifed to death along with Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July last year.
Now seven months on, her parents Sergio and Alex have revealed they are fundraising for a new school playground that will include a stage in Alice’s memory.
In an interview with the BBC, which was their first on camera, they said their daughter began dancing when she was just 16-months-old and was always wanting to perform.
Alice’s mother Alex said: ‘I think she was born to be a star. [The stage] would be her favourite part.’
‘She loved school and she always tried to do her best. For us it is really important to make this [the playground] happen.’
Alice’s favourite teacher at Churchtown Primary School also spoke of the nine-year-old’s love for singing and dancing.
Giving his support to the plans for the stage, Alan Bowen said: ‘Every single minute of every single play time and break time, she’d [have been] on that stage.
The parents of one of the girls murdered in the Southport knife attack have spoken of their heartbreak in their first TV interview
Alice da Silva Aguiar pictured with her favourite teacher Alan Bowen at primary school
Alice, nine, was brutally knifed to death along with Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July last year.
‘And she wouldn’t just be on the stage dancing, she’d be getting people involved. They’d be doing dance routines; they’d be having songs; they’d have microphones… she’d be on the stage directing everything that was going on.’
Alice’s father Sergio is planning on running the London Marathon on April 27 to raise money for the new playground with a link to the GoFundMe page available here.
Other parents and staff at Churchtown Primary School will also be taking part to help reach the £250,000 goal.
It comes as Axel Rudakubana, now 18, was last month sentenced to at least 52 years in prison for horrific Southport attack.
He stabbed two adults and 11 children – with Elsie Dot, Bebe and Alice all suffering fatal injuries.
When police searched his home in Banks, Lancashire they found knives and poison, as well as images and documents relating to violence, war and genocide on his devices.
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’.
Pictured: Alice’s parents looking over the plans for the new playground in an interview with the BBC
Axel Rudakubana, 18, who carried out the attacks in Southport last year
Elsie Dot Stancombe (left) and Bebe King (right) were both killed in the Southport attacks last July
Alice da Silva Aguiar (pictured), nine, died in hospital of her injuries a day after the rampage
The child killer is seen here in CCTV footage wearing a green hoodie on the day of he carried out the sickening murders
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Mother of dance-loving Southport victim speaks out for the first time since 9-year-old was murdered
Among the items found on two tablet computers belonging to Rudakubana were documents including A Concise History Of Nazi Germany and The Myth Of The Remote Controlled Car Bomb, the PA news agency understands.
Rudakubana, whose parents moved to the UK from Rwanda, also had documents called Rwanda’s Hutu Extremist Insurgency – An Eye Witness Perspective and Death And Survival During The 1994 Genocide In Rwanda.
Other files included A Place Under Heaven – Amerindian Torture and Cultural Violence; The Mau Mau War: British Counterinsurgency in Colonial Kenya; Clan Cleansing In Somalia, The Ruinous Legacy of 1991; and Examination Of Punishments Dealt To Slave Rebels In Two 18th Century British Plantation Societies.
Also found was a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual.
The discovery of the file led to Rudakubana being charged with possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism, which he later admitted.
Ahead of what would have been his trial, Rudakubana unexpectedly admitted murdering the three girls and attempting to murder 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 possessing a knife on the date of the attack, production of the 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.