Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to 52 years in jail for the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, when Rudakubana launched his attack in July last year.
Sentencing him today, the judge confirmed the killer could not be jailed for life because he was 17 at the time of the attack, despite his “determination” to inflict “extreme violence”.
He instead ordered Rudakubana, 18, to serve concurrent sentence, admitting the teenager “may never be released” after handing down multiple life sentences totalling 52 years behind bars.
“It was such extreme violence… it is difficult to comprehend why it was done,” presiding judge, Mr Justice Goose, said.
Despite the sentence being among the heaviest ever given out in the UK, some have already pushed for Rudakubana’s sentence to be increased. The Attorney General’s office said the case was referred under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Local MP Patrick Hurley, who made the referral, said: “The crimes he committed were horrific and natural justice demands he spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
Keir Starmer said the atrocity in Southport was “one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history” and “this vile offender will likely never be released.”
Despite the subsequent riots seen across the UK following the Southport attack, the judge insisted “he did not cause them,” noting this was not factored into Rudakubana’s sentence.
The teenager entered a guilty plea on the first day of the trial. He also admitted to the attempted murder of eight other children, in addition to dance teacher Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, at the Hart Space in the Merseyside town on 29 July last year.
Rudakubana was ordered out of court mid-way through sentencing by the judge after he began yelling for “a paramedic”.
A shout of “coward” echoed from the public gallery where relatives were seated, with Rudakubana replying: “It’s not my fault, I feel ill.”
The killer entered the dock at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday wearing a grey tracksuit and surgical mask and immediately sat, resting his head down on his knees. He did not respond when asked him to confirm his name.
He was allowed to return to the courtroom following a lunch recess, before being removed for a second time moments later.
The sentence was eventually passed in his absence, with the judge declaring: “I will not continue to have these proceedings disrupted”.
“He cannot claim to have shown any remorse… however, lack of remorse is not an aggravating factor,” the judge admitted.
Turning in the dock shortly after his arrival in court, he told officers: “I’m not fine, I feel ill” before shouting at the judge: “You’re not giving me any support judge, I feel ill,” he continued.
During the hearing, Rudakubana yelled: “I can’t remain quiet. I haven’t eaten for 10 days. I feel ill. I’m not going to remain quiet.”
Setting out their case, Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC revealed further details of Rudakubana’s arrest, with the teenager admitting he was “so happy” his victims were dead while under arrest for the murders.
Prosecutor Heer told Axel Rudakubana’s sentencing: “Whilst under arrest at the police station after the incident, Axel Rudakubana was heard to say, ‘It’s a good thing those children are dead… I’m so glad… so happy’.”
She added: “Having researched atrocities committed by others, the evidence suggests that he set out to emulate them on the 29 July. There is no evidence that he ascribed to any particular political or religious ideology; he wasn’t fighting for a cause.
Officers found violent content on Axel 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.
“His only purpose was to kill, and he targeted the youngest, most vulnerable in order to spread the greatest level of fear and outrage, which he succeeded in doing,” the court was told.
Dance class instructor, Leanne Lucas, 36, who was injured by Rudakubana in the attack, told Liverpool Crown Court: “I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died.”
Reading a victim impact statement, she said: “I am trying to see the goodness in the world, however the badness has been evidentially proven to me to exist, in plain sight, on our doorsteps, in our community.
“You never think this is going to happen to you, I never thought this was going to happen to me and now my mindset has been altered to it could happen to you and it will probably happen to you.
The prosecution went on to detail how he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in February 2021, with three referrals made to Prevent around this time.
In November 2019 a referral was made after he researched school shootings during IT class; A second referral in February 2021 followed reports that he had uploaded images of Colonel Gadaffi to Instagram; A third, in April 2021, was made because he was found researching the London Bridge terror attack.
She detailed how police found a document called “Military studies in the Jihad against Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” on a tablet belonging to the defendant, the court heard.
The prosecutor said: “The manual had been downloaded on three occasions in 2021, meaning that it was already in the defendant’s possession when he purchased the castor beans from which he produced the ricin in early 2022. If that is right, then he clearly knew just how deadly a substance it was before he produced it.
“Furthermore, by the time he went to The Hart Space in 2024, the defendant was in possession of instructions in the manual on how to carry out a knife attack with lethal force.”
It emerged on Monday that Rudakubana was referred to the government’s counter-terrorism Prevent programme three times before the incident due to his general “obsession with violence”.
His behaviour was assessed by the programme as potentially concerning but he was deemed not to be motivated by a terrorist ideology or pose a terrorist danger and was therefore not considered suitable for the counter-radicalisation scheme.
When police searched Rudakubana’s home in Banks, Lancashire, after he carried out the Southport murders on July 29, they found knives and poison, as well as images and documents relating to violence, war and genocide on his devices.
After he pleaded guilty on Monday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) described him as a “young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence” and said he had shown no signs of remorse.
“This day didn’t need to happen if people in his past dealt with the problem when presented with it,” the parent told the paper.
“There were several chances to stop this horrific outcome, so the blame ultimately lands with every organisation that came across him. It’s one massive failure of people.
“A public inquiry has been announced into the stabbings, intended to “get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change”.
Before leaving his home to travel to the dance class where he murdered three young girls, Axel is understood to have searched social media site X for the Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing, which led to a video of the stabbing of the Bishop Emmanuel and five others during a sermon at church in Sydney in April 2024.
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, PA reports.
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.
Speaking after the sentencing, Starmer said: “The thoughts of the entire nation are with the families and everyone affected by the unimaginable horrors that unfolded in Southport. No words will ever be able to capture the depth of their pain.
“I want to say directly to the survivors, families and community of Southport – you are not alone. We stand with you in your grief.
“What happened in Southport was an atrocity and as the judge has stated, this vile offender will likely never be released.
“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve.”
By Danielle de Wolfe and Henry Moore
