A teenager that is he stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced on Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the worst, most horrific and most serious crime”.
Judge Julian Goose said 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to attempt to commit mass murder on innocent, happy young girls.”
Goose said he could not sentence him to life without parole, because Rudakubana was under 18 when he committed the crime.
But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus the six months he has been in custody, before he can be considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”
Rudakubana was 17 when he was attack on the 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, between the ages of 7 and 13, along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.
Darren Staples/AP
The attack shocked the country and both of them left street violence and soul searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into the system's failure to stop the killer, who was referred to the authorities several times because of his obsession with violence.
Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges of possessing a knife, the poison ricin and an al-Qaida handbook. He suddenly changed his plea to guilty on all charges on Monday.
But he was not in court to hear the sentence on Thursday.
A few hours earlier he had been brought into the dock at the Crown Court in Liverpool in north-west England, dressed in a gray prison suit. But as prosecutors began to describe the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted by shouting that he felt sick and wanted to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the defendant to be removed when he continued to shout. Someone in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” as Rudakubana was brought out.
The hearing continued without him.
Elizabeth Cook / AP
Prosecutor Deanna Heer explained how the attack happened on the first day of summer vacation when 26 little girls “gathered around the table making bracelets and singing Taylor Swift songs.”
Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, entered and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at Hart Space in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children ran outside in panic, some of them injured. One girl came to the door, but was forced back 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 children who died “had particularly gruesome injuries that are difficult to describe as anything but tragic in nature.” One of the girls who died was 122 injured, and another 85 injured.
The prosecutor said Rudakubana had a “long-term obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”
“His only motive was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as the relatives of the victims watching in the courtroom.
Heer said that when he was taken to the police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It's a good thing those 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 false reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had come to the UK recently short Some suggested that the crime was a jihadi attack, and they said that the crime was a jihadi attack, and they said that the attacker was an asylum seeker. the government was withholding information.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan Christian parents, and investigators have not been able to determine his motivation. Police found documents on subjects including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.
In the years leading up to the attack, several authorities were informed of his violent interests and activities. Not all groups were aware of the danger involved.
In 2019, he called a children's advice line to ask, “What should I do if I want to kill someone?” He said he brought a knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked another student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.
Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government's anti-terrorism programme, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 – once after investigating a school shooting in class, then for photographs of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to upload to Instagram and to investigate the terrorist attack in London. .
But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakubana had no political or religious motive. Heer said “his aim was the commission of mass murder, not for any particular purpose, but as an end in itself.” “
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that the country must face a “new threat” from violent individuals whose motivations vary according to the traditional definition of terrorism.
“After one of the most tragic times in our nation's history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and everyone affected by this to give them the change they deserve delivered,” Starmer said after the sentence.
A number of relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack devastated their lives.
Lucas, 36, who ran the dance class, said that “the trauma of being a victim and a witness has been terrible.”
“I can't feel sorry for myself or accept praise, because how can I live knowing that I survived when children died?” she said.
A 14-year-old survivor, who cannot be named due to a court order, said she was recovering physically. “we all have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your life realizing that we think you're a coward,” she said.
The prosecutor read a statement from Alice Da Silva Aguiar's parents, who said their daughter's killing had “broken our souls”.
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn't seem right,” they said. “Alice was our goal to live, so what do we do now? “
