The teenager who murdered three girls at a dance class in England in a “sadistic attack” has been told he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, was given a minimum term of 52 years in jail before he can apply for parole. He was not in court to hear the sentence after being removed for being disruptive.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died in the attack, and Rudakubana also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told Liverpool Crown Court it was a “premeditated, planned knife attack upon multiple victims, principally young girls, intending to kill them”.
She said: “Three children were killed, two of whom suffered particularly horrific injuries which are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.”
Riots broke out across the UK in the wake of the killings and have led to accusations of a cover up due to some information about the killer being withheld. In the hours after the stabbing, information spread online which wrongly claimed the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat.
Sentencing, 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 court heard that after he was arrested, Rudakubana said “I’m so glad those kids are dead, it makes me happy”.
Mr Justice Goose has said he “must accept” that there was no evidence Axel Rudakubana had any terrorist cause, but added his culpability is “equivalent to terrorist matters, whatever its purpose”.
He said: “Many who have heard the evidence summarised by the prosecution in this hearing and have seen CCTV played with a view outside of the building might describe what he did as evil.
“Who would dispute it? But, at any view it was at least the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.”
The judge added: “His culpability is equivalent in its seriousness to terrorist murders, whatever his purpose.
“What he did on July 29 caused such shock and revulsion that it must be seen as the most extreme level of crime.”
Rudakubana also admitted possessing the poison ricin, and an Al Qaeda training manual.
The judge said it was likely the teenager would have gone on to use the poison in an attack if he had not carried out the killing spree.
Obsession with violence
Officers found violent content on Rudakubana’s devices including images of dead bodies, victims of torture, beheadings, cartoons depicting killing, violence and rape or which insulted or mocked different religions, including Islam, Judaism and Christianity, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Ms Heer said there were several images relating to different wars and international conflicts, including in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Korea, Iraq and the Balkans.
The court heard a number of documents were found which also related to war, weapons and genocide.
These included documents called “A concise history of Nazi Germany,” “Death and survival during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda,” and “Examination of punishments dealt to slave rebels in two 18th Century British Plantation Societies”.
Ms Heer said: “The material found on these devices provides, the prosecution suggest, a window into the defendant’s mind at this time. It demonstrates that he was fascinated with violence of an extreme nature, that he had obtained information on killings and how to kill and he had obtained weapons capable of killing.”
Ms Heer had earlier said it was “not possible to identify any particular terrorist cause” for the attack. She said there was a specific definition of terrorism the court had to apply, meaning the use or threat of action where it is designed to influence a government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public. She said: “It may be arguable that there was an intention to intimidate the public or a section of the public here.” She said the difficulty from the prosecution’s perspective was there was no evidence the defendant’s actions were made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.
Ms Heer said: “In this case I have explained what was found on the defendant’s computer devices and images relating to war, genocide and extreme violence carried out by different actors with different ideologies. In those circumstances, it is not possible to identify any particular terrorist cause.”
Ms Heer said the evidence suggests the defendant’s purpose was the commission of mass murder, not for a particular end, “but as an end in itself”.
Terror law change
Rudakubana changed his pleas to guilty on Monday, when it emerged that he had been referred to the government's antiterrorism Prevent scheme three times, without being recommended for further intervention. The government announced an inquiry into the failings that allowed Rudakubana's attack to take place.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the country had “failed in its duty” to protect the girls, “failures which leap off the page”. He also said he would be willing to widen terrorism laws to include killers such as Rudakubana if necessary. Britain faces a new terrorism threat from “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom”, Mr Starmer said.
However, Jonathan Hall KC, the UK's terror watchdog, cautioned that it would risk overwhelming counter-terrorism officers. He said they could be called upon to investigate football hooligans and murderers like Lucy Letby alongside Al Qaeda suspects and hostile states.
Taxi ride
Video footage has been released of the moment Rudakubana left a taxi without paying before launching his knife attack.
Wearing a green sweatshirt with the hood up and a surgical mask, Rudakubana can be seen speaking to the driver from the back of the car after arriving at the scene on July 29 last year.
Rudakubana, then aged 17, repeatedly ignored the driver when asked how he wanted to pay.
Seconds later, he entered the Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
At 11.59am he was arrested, initially on suspicion of attempted murder, and soon afterwards, at 12.02pm, on suspicion of murder.
The judge said at the sentencing hearing Rudakubana targeted the 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.”
Horrific injuries
The court heard disturbing details of the injuries suffered by the victims, including one who was stabbed 122 times. Another child had so many injuries her father was unable to recognise her when he arrived at the scene. The judge said that after some of the injured girls escaped, Rudakubana “returned to continue his sustained and brutal violence against two of the youngest of those children, stabbing them multiple times”.
Harrowing victim impact statements were read out by the families of the girls who died, and those who were injured.
A dance teacher injured in the attack has said the victims have scars “we cannot unsee”, as survivors gave their harrowing accounts of the day.
Leanne Lucas was overseeing the Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on July 29 last year, when Rudakubana entered the building armed with a knife and attacked children and adults.
At Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, Ms Lucas told of living in constant fear since the attack, unable to feel safe at work or in public places and said she cannot give herself compassion or accept praise, adding: “How can I live knowing I survived when children died?”
Ms Lucas said: “On that day, I received several injuries that have not only affected me physically but also mentally. I, as do the girls, have scars we cannot unsee, scars we cannot move on from.”
She described the trauma of being both a victim and a witness as “horrendous” but said she is “surviving” for the victims, telling the court “to discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible”.
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”.
Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl who survived the attack, told the court how the “day turned into a living nightmare”.
Reading her statement via video link, she said of Rudakabana: “The thing I remember most about you is your eyes. You didn’t look human, you looked possessed.”
