Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana could spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing three young women.
A man who killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed class in Southport, United Kingdom last year has been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.
Judge Julian Goose said on Thursday that 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to try to kill innocent and happy girls”.
The judge said he could not impose a life sentence without parole, as Rudakubana was under 18 at the time of the trial.
But the judge said he would have to serve at least 52 years before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released”.
Rudakubana was 17 years old they attacked little children in the seaside town of Southport last July.
He killed three girls – Bebe King, six years old, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, – and injured eight other children, as well as two adults.
On Monday, Rudakubana confessed to the murders. He also pleaded guilty to 10 counts of attempted murder, manufacturing the toxic chemical ricin and possessing an al-Qaeda training manual.
The public prosecutor said that Rudakubana had no political or religious motive, but “a long-standing passion for violence, murder, murder”.
Rudakubana was not in court to hear his sentence handed down. Early in the trial, he was dismissed for disruptive behavior.
Riots
After the Rudakubana attack, right-wing activists seized on false media reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had just arrived in the UK.
Media reports sparked weeks of anti-immigrant arguments and the police and crowds of people entered the streets of the city across the UK attacks on minorities and Muslims.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda. Investigators have not been able to determine the cause of his charges.
A few years before that, Rudakubana was reported to several authorities because of his violence and behavior.
The government has ordered an investigation, saying there are difficult questions to answer.
“After one of the most difficult times in our nation's history, we owe it to these innocent girls and all those affected to get what they deserve,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.