A teenager who stabbed three 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, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.” .
Judge Julian Goose said Axel Rudakubana, 18, “wanted to try to carry out a mass murder of innocent and happy girls”.
Goose said he could not impose a sentence of life in prison 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 spent in custody, before he will be considered for parole, and “it is likely that 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 ages between 7 and 13 years. , along with Professor Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.
The attack shocked the country and sparked both street violence and soul-searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to authorities several times for his obsession with violence.
The accused interrupts the hearing
Rudakubana faces three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and additional charges of possession of a knife, the poison ricin and an Al Qaeda manual. On Monday he unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all charges.
But he was not in court to hear the sentence handed down 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 outlining the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted, shouting that he felt bad and wanted to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the defendant to be removed when he continued to scream. One person in the room shouted “Coward!” when Rudakubana was eliminated.
The hearing continued without him.
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Terror on a summer day
Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack occurred on the first day of summer vacation, when 26 girls were “gathered around tables making bracelets 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 at the Hart Space location in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams broke out and children ran away in panic, some of them injured. A girl managed to get to the door, but the attacker pushed her inside. 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 horrific injuries that are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.” One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, while another suffered 85 injuries.
A teenager obsessed with violence
The prosecutor said Rudakubana had “a long-standing obsession with violence, murder and genocide.”
“His only purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” he said, as the victims' relatives looked on in the courtroom.
Heer said that when he was taken to a police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It's good that those children are dead, I'm very happy, I'm very 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. Some suggested the crime was a jihadist attack and alleged that the police and government were withholding information.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda, and researchers have not been able to pinpoint his motivation. Police found documents on topics such as Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.
In the years prior to the attack, he had been reported to multiple authorities for his violent interests and actions. None of the agencies detected the danger it represented.
In 2019, she called a children's advice line and asked, “What should I do if I want to kill someone?” He said he had brought a 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.
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 investigating school shootings in class, then for uploading photos of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Instagram and for investigating an attack. terrorist in London. .
But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakubana had no discernible political or religious cause. Heer said that “their purpose was to commit mass murder, not for a particular end, 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 combination of motivations challenges the traditional definition of terrorism.
“After one of the most heartbreaking moments in our country's history, we owe it to these innocent young women and everyone affected to bring about the change they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing.
Heartbreaking testimony of the victims
Several family members and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack had shattered their lives.
Lucas, 36, who led the dance class, said “the trauma of being a victim and witness has been horrendous.”
“I can't feel compassion 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 this while physically recovering. “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're a coward,” he said.
The prosecutor read a statement from Alice Da Silva Aguiar's parents, who said their daughter's murder had “destroyed our souls.”
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. “It doesn’t seem right,” they said. “Alice was our purpose in life, so what do we do now?”