The 18-year-old accused of killing three girls at a dance class in Southport has admitted the attack on the first day of his trial.
Axel Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, was to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday charged with 16 offences, including three counts of murder of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
The defendant, who was 17 at the time of the attack, admitted their murders as well as the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
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Following his guilty plea, new details have emerged about Rudakubana, including that he had shown violent behaviour at school and had been referred to the counter-extremism scheme three times.
Read the latest developments following his guilty plea from Yahoo’s media partners below, or click to skip ahead
> Killer was referred to counter-extremism scheme three times
> Southport attacker showed violent behaviour in school
> How violence-obsessed teen unleashed horror
> Why killer can’t receive whole life sentence
> Southport attacker’s ricin ‘killed my cat’
Killer was referred to counter-extremism scheme three times
Axel Rudakubana. (PA)
The teenager who murdered three young girls at a dance class in Southport was referred three times to Prevent, the government’s scheme to stop terrorist violence, the Guardian has learned.
One of the referrals followed concerns about Axel Rudakubana’s potential interest in the killing of children in a school massacre, it is understood.
Southport attacker showed violent behaviour in school
The teenager who killed three girls in a stabbing at a Southport dance class showed violent behaviour while in high school, it is understood.
The teenager, who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, is believed to have left Range High School in Formby in around 2019, before moving to a specialist school.
Teachers at the specialist school, which was within the borough of Sefton, were concerned about Rudakubana’s behaviour and his violence towards others, it is understood.
How violence-obsessed teen unleashed horror
The Southport victims (left to right) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar. (PA)
When Axel Rudakubana got into a taxi in summer last year, the country had no clue of the horrors he was about to unleash on the town of Southport.
The then 17-year-old travelled by taxi to the Hart Space, where he ambushed a class of children aged between six and 11 who were starting their summer holidays at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Merseyside. The frenzied attack… was described as like a scene from a disaster film when he targeted the girls while a teacher and a grandfather nearby bravely tried to defend the screaming children.
Why killer can’t receive whole life sentence
Rudakubana in court. (PA)
Rudakubana’s crimes are so severe that they may have warranted a whole life order. These were imposed on the likes of Lucy Letby, Wayne Couzens and Mark Fellows in recent years and mean that an offender can never be considered for release on licence.
However, under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, whole life orders can only be given to a defendant who was aged 18 or above at the time of committing their crimes. Rudakubana was aged 17 on the date of his offences in July last year.
Southport attacker’s ricin killed my cat, neighbour claims
A neighbour of the Southport killer says the ricin produced by Axel Rudakubana poisoned her cat.
Caroline McDonald, 50, was left heartbroken when her nine-year-old cat Jo Jo died less than 24 hours after police found him in a forensics tent. Detectives found ricin, a biological toxin, during a search of Rudakubana’s home in early August that presented “a low risk to the public”, Merseyside Police said.
