Taylor Alert – ‘How can I live knowing that children died’: The haunting testimonies from victims of the Southport massacre

It was  a sunny morning full of ‘laughter and excitement’ as a group of little girls made bracelets and sang songs at a Taylor Swift dance class. But at 11.45am on July 29 a hooded figure with glinting eyes unleashed an unimaginable horror. 

Yesterday the victims’ families sat quietly sobbing, holding hands in a hushed courtroom as they shared their pain. 

Here, in incredibly moving victim-impact statements, the families of two of the girls who died, as well as survivors, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and their families, tell of the terror, the pain and the unending grief that has shattered their lives.

Elsie Dot Stancombe: No matter the pain, we will carry her love forward 

Jenni Stancombe had a defiant message for her seven-year-old daughter’s killer: ‘That day we lost our beloved daughter, the three of us lost our best friend. 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.

Elsie Dot Stancombe was one of the victims in the Southport massacre 

‘You know what you have done, and we hope the weight of that knowledge haunts you every single day.

‘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.

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

‘We were robbed of the opportunity to protect our girls.

‘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.’

Ms Stancombe said that knowing Axel Rudakubana was likely never to go free gives ‘us a small measure of justice’.

‘He took our daughter, her life, her future, and everything she could have been,’ she said. ‘There is no greater loss, and no greater pain.

‘His actions have left us with a lifetime of grief, and it is only right that he faces the same.’

Elsie’s mother Jenni Stancombe said that knowing Axel Rudakubana was likely never to go free gives ‘us a small measure of justice

Child A: It was like a war zone, her father didn’t recognise her

The mother of a seven-year-old girl described how she was so badly injured that her own father didn’t recognise her.

The girl was captured on CCTV fleeing for her life, but Rudakubana dragged her back inside the building stabbing her more than 30 times.

Her mother said her husband entered a scene ‘like a war zone’.

‘There was a girl on the ground who was wearing the same clothes as my daughter’, she said. ‘Lying on the floor whilst members of the public tried to get a paramedic to her. She was so horrifically injured that my husband wasn’t sure if it was her – he had to ask this little girl if she had a brother, and what his name was.

‘She answered. It was her. Laying on the floor bleeding out from her arms and back. Her beautiful long blonde hair was covered in so much blood it looked brown and her daddy couldn’t recognise her. This is one of many, many moments that torture both of us.’

Court artist drawing of Axel Rudakubana  

After two operations, each lasting six to seven hours, and multiple transfusions, the victim awoke thinking she was still in the nightmare where she couldn’t breathe.

‘She woke up still trying to grab on to her best friend. Still trying to escape him. Still trying to run’, her mother said.

‘She tells us how she thought it was a prank and when he approached her with the knife upstairs she told him she didn’t want one, she didn’t want to play.

‘But he attacked her.’

The child saw two of her friends die but, despite her injuries, she managed to escape: ‘He left her for dead in a lifeless pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs and she stood up at seven years old, and saved herself.’

The child now tells her parents: ‘I don’t know who I am any more.’

She will be scarred for life. ‘No more crop tops, no more short-sleeved T-shirts. No more swimwear, no more summer dresses’, her mother said.

But she said Rudakubana had not won: ‘He will not be remembered. When we think of Southport we will think of the girls. Their bravery. Their strength. He has completely failed to destroy her spirit, her amazing sense of humour, her fierceness and her pure beautiful heart.’

Girl, 14: You (the killer) didn’t look human, you looked possessed

Recalling the terrifying moment she encountered the killer, a 14-year-old girl said: ‘The dance club was full of laughter and excitement all morning with the girls full of life.

‘The beginning of my nightmare started when I saw you. I thought you were playing a joke.

‘I saw you in your green hoody

and face mask. The thing I remember most about you is your eyes. You didn’t look human, you looked possessed.

Axel Rudakubana (pictured) was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years behind bars after he murdered three young girls at Taylor Swift themed Dance Class in July 

‘I watched you stab someone and then I saw you coming for me. It was like slow motion.

‘You stabbed me in the arm and instinctively I turned and that’s when you continued to stab me

in the back although I didn’t feel it at the time.

‘All I could hear was the screams.

‘I remember thinking we need to get away as you weren’t going to stop. I knew from your eyes you wanted to try to kill us all.’

Reading out her statement to the court via video link, her voice trembled as she told Axel Rudakubana: ‘It’s sickening what

you did, going in there knowing you’re going into a room full of defenceless children.

‘Give me a reason for what you did. Arming yourself with a weapon and stabbing children.

‘I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing we think you’re a coward.’

Alice Da Silvia: Once she had gone, we lost our lives

The parents of nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, Alexandra and Sergio, described how ‘life was bliss’ and ‘every day felt like a gift’ before their lives were turned into a ‘5D horror movie’ by Rudakubana.

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

‘She loved Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter. She was a strong and confident pre-teen with a world of dreams and unlimited potential.

‘We just wanted to see her happy, and that was the easiest job in the world.’

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was one of the three children killed in the knife attack in Southport

The parents of nine-year-old Alice (pictured) described how ‘life was bliss’ and ‘every day felt like a gift’ before their lives were turned into a ‘5D horror movie’ by Rudakubana

Recalling the day of the attack they said: ‘This was the perfect start to her beautiful day, but also the worst.

‘In a matter of minutes our worlds were shattered and turned upside down by the devastating attack on our Alice. A pin drop that changed our lives for ever.

‘We kept our hopes up every second during Alice’s 14-hour fight but once she had lost her fight, we lost our lives. Everything stopped still and we froze in time and space.

‘Our life went with her. He took us too. Six months of continuous pain and a lifetime sentence of it.

‘That’s what we got then and the life we live now. Our dream girl has been taken away in such a horrible, undeserving way that it shattered our souls.

Alice’s parents said: ‘In a matter of minutes our worlds were shattered and turned upside down by the devastating attack on our Alice. A pin drop that changed our lives for ever’

Alice da Silva Aguiar – eager to get into the Taylor Swift dance class on Hart Street on July 29 last year

‘We’re heartbroken that we can never help Alice fulfil her dreams, we can’t hug her any more, brush her hair.

‘We can no longer wake up with Alice’s happy smile or get a morning kiss and hug from her… It feels like we’re stuck in a 5D horror movie.

‘We would do anything to hold Alice one more time.’

Girl, 10: I saw the blood coming out 

A girl of ten was making bracelets when she was stabbed in the back by a man she thought was a cleaner.

She said: ‘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.

‘I was trying to scream but I was struggling to scream.’

She managed to run out of the building to her mother, who was waiting in the car outside, before she was airlifted to hospital.

'I was scared about what was happening to me in hospital,' she said.

'I didn't want to tell my mum at first what I had seen as I didn't want her to worry, and if I died, I wanted her to live her life without her knowing about it so I told the trauma nurse.'

After six hours of surgery, during which her spleen had to be removed, the girl awoke in a panic thinking that someone would get into her room.

She said: '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.'

Child C: My being there that day saved someone else

When asked to explain the impact of the appalling attack, a nine-year-old survivor known as Child C, who suffered three wounds to her back, said: 'I struggle with my emotions, and I have scars that I know will be with me for ever, 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.' The nine-year-old's proud parents said yesterday: 'These are not the words that any little girl, who just liked yoga and making bracelets, should ever need to say.

'Her words both horrify us and make us immeasurably proud.

'Our daughter is strong. Our daughter is positive. Our daughter is brave.

'Our daughter is beautiful. Our daughter loves and is loved. Our daughter sees the best in everyone.

'Our daughter is everything that Axel Rudakubana is not. She is our hero.'

The dance teacher: How can I live knowing that children died 

Class instructor Leanne Lucas says she is paralysed by guilt about what happened, despite being attacked as she saved the lives of many children.

'I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died,' she said.

She added: '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, Heidi, and the surviving girls. I'm surviving for you.'

Ms Lucas suffered five stab wounds to her scalp, neck, the right of her spine extending through the muscle between the ribs, her shoulder blade and forearm. 

Class instructor Leanne Lucas says she is paralysed by guilt about what happened, despite being attacked as she saved the lives of many children

She now lives in fear.

'I constantly see his face', she said. 'As a 36-year-old woman, I cannot stay in my own home alone. I cannot go to work.

'I cannot walk down the street without holding my breath as I bypass a person and then glance back to see if they've attempted to stab me.'