Evil Southport killer Axel Rudakubana today finally faced justice for murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in a horrific stabbing frenzy that shocked the nation to its core.
The 18-year-old has been locked up for a minimum of 52 years after murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in the worst targeted attack on children in Britain since the Dunblane massacre in 1996.
Armed with a 20cm kitchen knife he had purchased on Amazon, the deranged teenager with a shocking history of violence stormed a dance class at The Hart Space in Southport on July 29 last year and set upon innocent children one by one.
The sickening attack shattered the lives of multiple young families and led to riots breaking out across the country, fuelled by misinformation that the then 17-year-old was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived on a small boat.
Rudakubana, who is the son of a refugee from Rwanda and was born in the UK, also admitted the attempted murder of eight other children, who can’t be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
He also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife on the day of the attack, production of a biological toxin – ricin – on or before July 29, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
In a final insult to the victims, Rudakubana was ordered out of his sentencing hearing twice after he refused to stay silent in the dock, complaining that he was ‘ill’ and needed a paramedic. A family member of one of the victims shouted ‘coward’ at him.
Rudakubana, from Banks, Lancashire, will likely die in jail after being sentenced to life with a minimum of 52 years, for carrying out the ‘sadistic’ 15-minute mass stabbing.
As he was 17 at the time of the attack, the judge could not give him a whole-life order and instead handed him 13 life sentences. He was also given a 12-year jail sentence for production of ricin, and 18 month sentences for possession of the knife and Al Qaeda manual.
Despite his lengthy sentence, questions will long remain over the missed opportunities to stop the killer whose shocking obsession with violence has been laid bare this week.
Here, MailOnline looks at how authorities failed to stop the teenager described as a ‘ticking timebomb’ rampage despite all the warning signs – and when key information was revealed in the months after.
August 7, 2006: Axel Rudakubana is born in Cardiff.
2013: The family – including Rudakubana’s father, mother and older brother – move from Wales to Banks in Lancashire, a few miles from Southport.
2019: Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said on January 20, 2025 that Rudakubana had become known to a number of mental health agencies from 2019, ‘initially due to experiencing increasing anxiety and social isolation and latterly due to the development of some challenging behaviours’.
October 2019 to May 2022: Lancashire Constabulary respond to five calls from Rudakubana’s home, relating to concerns about his behaviour.
On each occasion, officers make Vulnerable Child Referrals to the MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub). Assessments are made after these referrals, with ‘Early Help’ support provided and a referral made to the youth justice service.
October 2019: Rudakubana – then aged 13 and in year 9 at Range High School in Formby – contacted ChildLine to say he had begun taking a knife into classes due to allege racist bullying.
Previously he had been regarded as a ‘model student’ who was well-known for his stage performance, including starring as Dr Who in a Children in Need trailer.
‘He’d reported being bullied, and he had taken the knife from the kitchen to school on several previous occasions,’ Assistant Chief Constable Mark Winstanley of Lancashire Police said.
ChildLine passed the concerning report to Lancashire Police – his local force – and he was ‘spoken to by police and admitted taking a knife to school’, Mr Winstanley, although none was ever found in his possession.
Officers spoke to the school and made a vulnerable child referral to partner agencies.
Meanwhile Rudakubana was expelled and went to a pupil referral unit, The Acorns School in Ormskirk.
December 2019: Rudakubana – still aged 13 – turned up unannounced at Range High School armed with a hockey stick and began attacking pupils, leaving one with a fractured wrist.
It can now be revealed that – chillingly – he also had a kitchen knife in his backpack, although he did not use it.
He was overpowered by teachers and Merseyside Police were called and arrested him.
Staff there made the first referral to Prevent over his ‘behaviour and comment and searches around mass shootings’.
His actions were ‘reviewed and considered by Prevent’ but there was ‘no obvious ideology or vulnerability to radicalisation’, Vicki Evans, Senior National Coordinator for Prevent and Pursue at Counter Terrorism Policing said today.
Instead he was referred to agencies including children’s social care and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
At court he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a bladed article and given a referral order focusing on knife crime.
He completely the requirements of the order in 2021.
February 2021: The second Prevent referral came here after concerns about social media posts he had made relating to ousted Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi were flagged by a pupil at his previous school.
The exact nature of his posts have yet to be revealed.
April 2021: During a lesson a teacher noticed he had two internet tabs open for searches about the 2019 London Bridge attacks in which convicted terrorist Usman Khan, 28, murdered Cambridge University graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23.
The referrals were not escalated because it was deemed Rudakubana did not hold a terrorist ideology. This was also revealed on January 20, 2025. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that Rudakubana had contact with the police, the courts, the youth justice system, social services and mental health services, but she gave no timeline for this.
Also in 2021, Rudakubana twice downloads the academic paper Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual. This contains redacted instructions for making ricin, and the document would later become the subject of a terrorism charge.
November 5 2021: Lancashire Police were called to his family home in Banks near Southport by his parents for the first time after Rudakubana ‘became distressed when a stranger knocked at the door’, ACC Winstanley said.
However the then 15-year-old then ‘calmed down’ and his parents contacted police again to say ‘no intervention or attendance was required’.
Instead, despite two referrals to Prevent earlier in 2021, another vulnerable child referral was made.
November 30 2021: Police were again called following an argument where Rudakubana had kicked his father and caused damage to his car.
‘His father didn’t want to prosecute his son, and the officer supported the decision in the circumstances that were presented,’ ACC Winstanley said.
Police again made a vulnerable child referral.
January 19, 2022: Castor beans – which contain ricin – are purchased by an ‘Al Rud’. This fact is established during the search of Rudakubana’s room in July 2024, when an empty plastic bag from Premier Seed Direct that contained the beans is discovered.
The court heard that the ricin found in his home could have killed 12,500 people.
Prosecutors gave evidence from a Porton Down expert who said: ‘The 150 castor beans obtained by the defendant could have produced between 1.07 and 5.33g of ricin, which is the equivalent of between 0 – 5 lethal doses by ingestion or 1,528 – 7,614 lethal doses by injection or 2,547 – 12,500 lethal doses by inhalation.’
Prosecutors added there was no evidence the ricin was to be used in the Southport attack or at any other time.
March 2022: On March 17 police were called by Rudakubana’s mother Laetitia Muzayire to report the 15-year-old missing after he left the house whilst his parents were out.
He was found on a bus by officers after the driver called police when he refused to pay the fare, ACC Winstanley said.
‘When officers arrived, Rudakubana was compliant, left the bus and then disclosed that he was in possession of a knife, which was found during the subsequent search,’ he said.
‘Rudakubana was taken home and placed in the care of his parents.
‘Officers gave advice to his mother regarding securing knives in the home.’
Due to the concern about his behaviour, another vulnerable child referral was made.
Acknowledging that officers could have chosen to arrest Rudakubana, Mr Winstanley said the response would be examined by the public inquiry.
‘The officer has made what they believe to be the correct decision,’ he added.
May 2022: On May 14, Rudakubana’s father Alphonse called police reporting that ‘his son’s behaviour had escalated after being denied access to a computer’, ACC Winstanley said.
‘Officers attended, and his parents were asking for assistance to help cope with him.’
Again a vulnerable child referral was made.
March 2023: On March 21, Lancashire Police control room received a call from a member of staff at Presfield High School and Specialist College requesting a welfare check on Rudakubana as he’d not attended since the May 25, 2022.
In fact it is understood that Rudakubana only turned up at the college ‘two or three times’ after being enrolled.
Police were informed that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) had been involved with him since January 2023.
ACC Winstanley said: ‘This request was assessed and a decision was taken not to deploy, as there was no immediate concern for safety and the circumstances did not reach the threshold for police deployment.’
October 2023: A Lenovo tablet is purchased, and used between May and July 2024. This is found to contain images of violence and genocide.
July 13, 2024: Rudakubana buys a 20cm (8in) Cerbera kitchen knife from Amazon.
July 15: The knife arrives at Rudakubana’s home in plain packaging at his request.
July 22: Rudakubana is stopped by his father from going to school where it was feared he was planning to carry out an attack on Range High School, which had expelled him years before, in October 2019.
At 12.20pm, Rudakubana armed himself with a large kitchen knife and left his home to get into a waiting taxi, booked under a fake name.
CCTV footage was today released of this incident.
He was wearing the same green hooded sweatshirt and surgical mask he would have on during the Southport attack a week later.
There is no suggestion Rudakubana’s father, Alphonse, knew what he is believed to have been planning at the school, but an eyewitness said: ‘There was a confrontation and Rudakubana was eventually persuaded to leave the vehicle.’
July 29: Just after 11am Rudakubana searches the stabbing of Mari Emmaneul in Sydney in 2014, then gets in a taxi before refusing to pay on arrival. At 11.45am, he enters a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space in Hart Street in Southport, Merseyside.
He fatally stabs Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine. Eight other children are injured, as are instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Police say they have detained a male and seized a knife. Within hours, claims spread online that the suspect is an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat in 2023. Some claims include an alleged identity.
That night, Merseyside Police issue a statement saying that the arrested man was born in Cardiff. He is not named at this stage, as is standard practice before a suspect is charged.
Chief Constable Serena Kennedy says the incident is not being treated as terror-related, but Counter-Terror Policing has offered to help with the investigation.
July 30: The search of Rudakubana’s home is paused when a Tupperware container under his bed is discovered with an unknown substance inside. This is sent off for testing by biological warfare experts at Porton Down. At this stage it is not confirmed to be ricin.
Also during the property search, police discover a machete, a second knife identical to the murder weapon, two Lenovo tablets and an HP laptop.
A PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual is also found on a device belonging to the teenager.
As Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visits Southport to lay flowers at the scene, there are hostile shouts of: ‘How many more Starmer? When are you going to do something?’ In the evening, a peaceful vigil is held outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue, where flowers are laid in memory of those who died. But shortly after the vigil, a separate protest begins outside the town’s mosque in St Luke’s Road. People throw items towards the mosque, property is damaged and police vehicles are set on fire.
Meanwhile a Whitehall source also tells The Telegraph on this day: ‘Terror has not been entirely ruled out at this point. We recognise that it can go in any direction.’
July 31: Demonstrators gather in Whitehall, London, for an ‘Enough Is Enough’ protest. Flares and cans are thrown at police and more than 100 people are arrested. Disorder also breaks out in Hartlepool, County Durham, and Aldershot, Hampshire.
August 1: Police announce at 0.16am that Rudakubana has been charged with the murders of Bebe, Elsie Dot and Alice, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article. The charges are thought to have been officially made hours earlier, on the evening of July 31. He is not named by police because of his age, but this also leads to wrongful claims of a cover-up at the time. He appears in court in Liverpool later that day and Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary KC rules he can be named, as he is due to turn 18 in a week.
Judge Menary said: ‘Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum. Whilst I accept it is exceptional, given his age, principally because he is 18 in six days’ time, I do not make an order under section 45.’
Rudakubana initially smiled on entering the courtroom – then kept his face covered by his sweatshirt for the remainder of the proceedings before the case was adjourned. Later that evening, demonstrators gather outside a hotel in Newton Heath, Manchester.
August 2: Three police officers are taken to hospital after disorder in Sunderland. Separately, by this day, scientists at Porton Down confirm to Merseyside Police that a substance found in the teenager’s bedroom was the deadly poison ricin.
Police had also established by this point that he possessed the Al Qaeda training manual. But this information is kept from the public, and the relevant charges are not publicly confirmed until October 29.
Some critics have since claimed that this decision avoided stoking further disorder, although it may have been an operational decision to allow police more time to gather evidence.
August 3: There are scenes of violence during planned protests across the UK, including in Liverpool, Hull, Nottingham and Belfast.
August 4: Disorder continues, including outside a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where masked demonstrators launch lengths of wood and sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers.
August 5: The Government holds an emergency Cobra meeting in the wake of the disorder and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vows to ‘ramp up criminal justice’. That evening, a peaceful vigil is held in Southport, a week on from the killings. Police deal with disorder in Plymouth, Devon and Darlington, County Durham.
August 7: Prison sentences for those involved in the unrest begin to be handed out. Derek Drummond, 58, is the first person to be jailed for violent disorder at Liverpool Crown Court, where he is sentenced to three years. More than 100 protests are planned for across the country, with counter-demonstrations taking place, but the majority of police forces report very little trouble.
August 29: Police tell Rudakubana’s neighbour Caroline McDonald that her cat Jo-Jo had entered the forensic tent outside the home and possibly the house itself. The cat is rushed to the vet after having a seizure and is put down by the vet due to suspected poisoning.
August 30: Ms McDonald says she sent an email to police on this day, asking to know what they found. She told MailOnline: ‘An inspector then came to my house and told me there was no toxic chemicals in that house, there was no poison and it was impossible that my cat could have been poisoned at that property.’ On October 29, the ricin charge was confirmed. Ms McDonald submitted a complaint to Merseyside Police which is now being investigated by the force’s Professional Standards Department.
October 10: The Prince and Princess of Wales visit Southport to meet emergency services workers and the families of victims
October 29: Merseyside Police announces Rudakubana will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink the next day charged with production of a biological toxin, Ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
But the delay in bringing the further charges comes despite questions from media outlets over the searches at his home, and led to accusations of a cover-up from public figures including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
October 30: Rudakubana appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink from HMP Belmarsh to face the two new charges. He holds his sweater over the bottom half of his face and does not respond when asked to confirm his name.
November 13: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court via videolink. He covers his face with his grey sweatshirt and does not speak throughout the hearing. About 20 family members of victims sit in the public gallery. The case is adjourned until December, when a preparatory hearing will take place.
November 20: Matt Jukes, head of UK counter-terrorism policing, says at a Westminster conference that the spread of misinformation during the riots was ‘turbo-charged’ by foreign bots. He also hit out at ‘unhelpful’ domestic commentators who know that police cannot release certain information during ongoing court proceedings but present that as conspiracy.
December 18: Not guilty pleas are entered on behalf of Rudakubana after he failed to speak via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court when asked to enter pleas to 16 charges he faced. Judge Mr Justice Goose said he was satisfied the defendant could hear what was being said and not guilty pleas would be entered on his behalf.
December 18: The senior national co-ordinator of UK counter-terrorism policing, Ms Evans, says investigators are increasingly seeing suspects who have accessed a range of violent material but that a specific ideology which may have motivated an attack can be extremely difficult to pin down. She said officers are seeing suspects with search histories like ‘a pick and mix of horror’. This could include material linked to school shootings, mass violence, extreme pornography, pro-incel material, and misogynistic and racist content.
January 20, 2025: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court for the first day of his trial where he pleads guilty to all 16 charges, including the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Merseyside Police release a mugshot of the killer.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper reveals the Home Office carried out an ‘urgent’ review over the summer of the three Prevent referrals and why they were closed. She vowed to publish more details this week alongside ‘reforms to the Prevent programme’, and announced a public inquiry.
Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said: ‘There is no doubt in my mind that Merseyside Police has conducted a thorough and extensive investigation focused on bringing justice for the families.
‘We have been accused of purposely withholding information, this is absolutely not the case.
From day one we have been as open as we possibly could and have constantly been in touch with the CPS who have advised us on what information could be released.
‘We have wanted to say much more to show we were being open and transparent, but we have been advised throughout that we couldn’t do so as it would risk justice being delivered.’
And Matt Jukes, head of UK counter-terrorism policing, said no motive had been established. He said: ‘Throughout this complex and large-scale investigation, we have been relentless in our pursuit of evidence as to why he attacked defenceless children on that day.
‘This has included specialist support in forensic examinations of his home address and digital devices, with witness interviews and intelligence gathering. Despite that we have not been able to identify why he carried out these attacks.’
The full statements issued yesterday by Merseyside Police, Counter Terrorism Policing and Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership can be read by clicking here
January 21: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says he had known details of the case as they were emerging after the attack, but to have made them public would have risked a future criminal trial collapsing. ‘Yes, I knew the details as they were emerging. That is the usual practice in a case such as this,’ he says. ‘But you know, and I know, that it would not have been right to disclose those details. The only losers, if the details have been disclosed, would be the victims and the families, because it ran the risk the trial would collapse. I’m never going to do that.’
January 23: Axel Rudakubana is sentenced to life with a minimum of 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court. Before the hearing, he was rushed to hospital but deemed well enough to attend court.
When the delayed hearing sentencing began, he started shouting ‘I feel ill’ and refused to stay quiet. He was ordered out of court twice by the judge. A family member of the victim shouted ‘coward’ at him.’
The court also heard that the killer said ‘I’m glad they are dead’ after he was arrested for fatally stabbing the the three girls.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Goose said: ‘The prosecution have made it clear this does not meet the definition of an act of terrorism within the meaning of the legislation as there is no evidence the purpose was to advance a particular political or ideological cause. I must accept that conclusion.
‘However, his culpability is equivalent in its seriousness to terrorist murders, whatever his purpose.
‘What he did on July 29 caused such shock and revulsion that it must be seen as the most extreme level of crime.’
On January 20, the CPS defended its decision to wait to disclose more details about the perpetrator’s past until then when it presents its ‘full case’ to court as he is sentenced, amid questions over why more information cannot be disclosed now he has pleaded guilty to his crimes.
For more on this shocking case, search The Trial: The Southport Dance class wherever you get your podcasts now.
