A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called ‘the most extreme crime, shocking and exceptionally serious.
Judge Julian Goose said Axel Rudakubana, 18, “wanted to attempt the mass murder of innocent young girls.”
Goose said he could not impose a sentence of life without parole because Rudakubana was under 18 when he committed the crime.
But the judge said he must serve 52 years, less the six months he was in custody, before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”
Rudakubana was 17 when he attacked children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He injured eight other girls, aged between 7 and 13, with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman, intervening.
The attack shocked the country and sparked both street violence and soul-searching. The government announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to authorities repeatedly for his obsession with violence.
The defendant disrupts the hearing
Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and additional charges of possession of a knife, ricin poison and an al-Qaeda manual. He unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty of all charges on Monday.
But he was not in court to hear the sentence adopted Thursday.
Hours earlier, he had been led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But as prosecutors began describing the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted, shouting that he felt sick and wanted to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the defendant removed when he continued to scream. One person in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” as Rudakubana was removed.
The hearing continued without him.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s best news, politics, business and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Horror on a summer day
Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack happened on the first day of summer vacation when 26 little girls were “gathered around tables making bracelets and singing along to Taylor Swift Songs.”
Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, invaded and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at the Hart Space site in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children ran outside in panic, some injured. A girl arrived at the door, but was pulled inside by the attacker. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.
Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the videos played.
Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly gruesome injuries that are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.” One of the dead girls suffered 122 injuries, while another suffered 85 injuries.
A teenager obsessed with violence
The prosecutor said Rudakubana had “a long-standing obsession with violence, murder, genocide.”
“His only goal was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as relatives of the victims looked on in the courtroom.
Heer said that when he was taken to the police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It’s a good thing these children are dead, I’m so happy, I’m so happy.”
The killings sparked days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the UK, with some saying suggested that the crime was a jihadi attack and alleged that the police and government were withholding information.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda, and investigators were unable to pin down his motivation. Police found documents on topics including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.
In the years before the attack, he had been reported to several authorities for his violent interests and actions. All agencies failed to spot the danger he posed.
In 2019, he called a children’s advice line to ask “What should I do if I want to kill someone?” He said he took a knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a co-worker with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.
The definition of terrorism
Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 — once after researching school shootings in class, then for uploading pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Instagram and for researching a London terror attack .
But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakubana had no discernible political or religious cause. Heer said: “His aim was the commission of mass murder, not for any particular end, but as an end in itself.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week the country faces a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motivations tests the traditional definition of terrorism.
“After one of the most heartbreaking moments in our country’s history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and everyone affected to deliver the change they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing.
Heartbreaking testimony from the victims
Several parents and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack shattered their lives.
Lucas, 36, who led the dance class, said “the trauma of being both victim and witness was horrific.”
“I can’t give myself compassion or accept praise, like how can I live knowing that I survived when the children died?” She said.
A 14-year-old survivor, who cannot be named because of a court order, said that while she is recovering physically. “We will all have to live with the mental pain of that day forever.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you are a coward,” she said.
The prosecutor read a statement from Alice da Silva Aguiar’s parents, who said their daughter’s murder had “broken our souls.”
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. This doesn’t seem fair,” they said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”
