A young man who Three young girls were stabbed to death. In a Taylor Swift– A themed dance class in England was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison on Thursday for what a judge described as a “very extreme, shocking and unusually serious crime”.
Judge Julian Goes said the 18-year-old… Axel Rudakobana. “Wanted to attempt mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.”
Goose said he could not impose a life sentence without parole, because Rudakobana was under 18 when he committed the crime.
But the judge said he would have to serve 52 years, minus six months, before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”
Rudacobana was 17 when he attacked children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguirre, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 6-year-old Baby King. He injured eight other girls between the ages of 7 and 13. , along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.
The attack shook the country. Both street violence and soul searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who was repeatedly referred to the authorities for his violent frenzy.
The defendant interrupted the hearing.
Rudakobana was charged with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges of possession of a knife, poison resin and a Al-Qaeda Manual he changed unexpectedly. His request for the criminal Monday on all charges.
But he was not in court to hear the sentence handed down on Thursday.
Hours earlier he was led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in north-west England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But as the prosecution began to outline the evidence, Rudakobana shouted that he felt sick and a Want to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the suspect to pull over as he drove away. A man in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” as Rudakobana was taken out.
The hearing continued without him.
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Terrible on a summer day
Prosecutor Diana Hare told how the attack took place on the first day of summer holiday when 26 little girls were “ringing around a table and singing Taylor Swift songs”.
Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, burst in and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The court was shown video of the suspect arriving in a taxi at Heartspace and entering the building. Within seconds there were screams and panicked children running outside, some of them injured. A girl reached the door, but the attacker pulled her back inside. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.
Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the videos played.
Two of the children who died suffered “particularly gruesome injuries that are difficult to describe as anything other than tragic,” Herr said. One of the dead girls sustained 122 injuries while the other sustained 85 injuries.
A young victim of violence
Rudakubana had a “long-standing obsession with violence, murder, genocide,” the prosecutor said.
“His only intention was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” he said, as relatives of the victims looked on in the courtroom.
As he was taken to the police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It's a good thing those children are dead, I'm very happy, I'm very happy,” Hare said.
The killings fueled the days. Anti-immigrant violence across the country After far-right activists were caught on false reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain, some called the crime a jihadist attack, and accused the police and government of withholding information. has been
Rodakobana was born in Cardiff, Wales to Christian parents from Rwanda, and investigators have been unable to pin down his motivation. Police have found documents related to subjects including Nazi Germanythe The Rwandan Genocide And car bomb On his devices.
In the years leading up to the attack, his violent interests and actions were reported to several authorities. All agencies failed to detect the threat he posed.
In 2019, she called a children's advice line asking “What should I do if I want to hit someone?” He said he took the knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.
Definition of Terrorism
Prosecutors said Rudakobana was sent three times to the government's counter-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 years old — once after a class researching school shootings, then Libyan leaders. On uploading images of Muammar Gaddafi For Instagram and research London terrorist attack.
But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakobana had no discernible political or religious motive. “His motive was the commission of mass murder, not for any particular purpose, but as an end in itself,” Hare said.
The Prime Minister Kerr Starmer said this week that the country faces a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motivations tests traditional definitions of terrorism.
“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country's history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and all the victims to offer them the change they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing. “
Harrowing testimony of victims.
Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack had destroyed their lives.
“The trauma of being both a victim and a witness was terrible,” said Lucas, 36, who ran a dance class.
“I cannot give myself sympathy or accept praise, for how can I live knowing that I lived when the children died?” he said.
A 14-year-old survivor, who cannot be named because of a court order, said that while she was physically recovering, “We will all have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing we think you're a coward.”
The prosecutor read a statement from Alice da Silva Aguirre's parents, who said their daughter's murder “has shattered our souls.”
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn't feel right,” he said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”