Sick Southport killer Axel Rudakubana's final cruel act to victims' families
He refused to stand to deliver his guilty pleas. He also refused to speak his name.
Sadist Axel Rudakubana has never shown any remorse over the merciless slaying of three schoolgirls in the Southport dance class murders. The twisted teen is now beginning a life sentence over the slayings of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.
The knife killer was slammed by Mr Justice Goose as he caged him for 52 years, calling his crime: "the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime".
The Mirror reports that, on July 29 last year, the 18-year-old took a taxi to The Hart Space in Southport, Merseyside, where a Taylor Swift dance class was taking place.
Once inside, he launched a ferocious attack, taking the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Rudakubana later pleaded guilty to killing the young girls as well as the attempted murders of yoga teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and businessman Jonathan Hayes.
Mr Justice Goose. (Image: PA.)The 63-year-old and Miss Luca were critically injured in their fight to save the children and eight more girls, aged between 7 and 11. Today, at Liverpool Crown Court, Mr Justice Goose, said: "He will serve almost the whole of his life in custody". The killer, who has no obvious evidence of mental health disorder, has shown no remorse since his arrest.
He has refused to speak at any of the hearings ahead of his trial. He then admitted all 16 charges against him on day one of the trial, which included possessing a knife, possessing terrorist material and producing ricin, a deadly poison. And in a final act of cruelty he showed his complete lack of remorse and respect for grieving families.
He refused to stand to deliver his guilty pleas. He also refused to speak his name. As he was 17 when he carried out the murders, the knifeman was not handed a whole life order for his horrific crimes. It is understood judges can only impose a whole life order on criminals who were aged 21 and over at the time of the offence.
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The punishment is only considered for those aged 18 to 20 in exceptional circumstances. After Rudakubana's arrest, it emerged he had been reported to the government's Prevent Counter Extremism scheme at least three times. It was also reported that the killer was expelled when he was 13 for bringing a knife into Range High School in Formby and then attacking pupils with a hockey stick.
The killer was born the youngest of two children to a "hardworking" father and stay-at-home mother in Cardiff in 2006. The family relocated to Lancashire in 2013, becoming valued members of the local community and regularly attending church. Their new neighbours described autistic Rudakubana as the "quiet" one of two brothers and an "introvert".
Speaking after the attacks last year, one neighbour told The Sun: "They were a lovely young couple. They were little boys, they were boisterous. Mum was a stay-at-home mum, Dad was nice, he went to work every day." Families of two of the girls murdered by Axel Rudakubana told Liverpool Crown Court about the life-changing impact it has had on their lives.
Victms Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9 (Image: PA)Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum term of 52 years for the three murders and 10 attempted murders in July 2024. A statement read out on behalf of Alexandra and Sergio Aguiar described how "in a matter of minutes our worlds were shattered and turned upside down by the devastating attack on our Alice".
They said: "A pin-drop that changed our lives forever. Everything stopped still and we froze in time and space. Our life went with her. He took us too." They said their daughter "was always a very kind girl, who valued equality and fairness at the core" and "a world of possibilities awaited her". "We were so lucky and privileged to have her. Every day felt like a gift.
"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 Eillish, and Sabrina Carpenter."
The mum of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe heartbreakingly described how she had lost her "best friend" when her daughter was murdered.
In a victim statement, read out on her behalf, Jenny Stancombe told Rudakubana he did not deserve to know "the extraordinary person" her daughter, Elsie Dot, was. "You know what you have done, and we hope the weight of that knowledge haunts you every single day," she said. "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", she said.
"We were robbed of the opportunity to protect our girls. If we had 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." She said the family would honour her, adding: "We will carry her love, positivity and her legacy forward, no matter how much pain you have caused".
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