Southport attacks: Axel Rudakubana removed from court during sentencing | Southport attack

The prosecutor is now reading a statement by Heidi Liddle, one of the dance teachers at the Hart Space, who was not physically injured but suffered enormous trauma.

She struggled with everyday activities and says: “I replayed the incident over and over in my mind, changing the sequence of events so that myself and the little girl I was with in the toilet, were stabbed and killed.”

She says she will “see the most horrific things in my mind” and that she feels guilty for surviving the attack. “I thought that I would get the blame from the public or the parents of the children blaming me for their child being seriously hurt or killed.”

She says: “I hated going to sleep, every time I closed my eyes I saw the girls inside the room at Hart Space. I had night terrors, and my mind would overthink everything and everytime I closed my eyes, I pictured him. I had learnt to deal with the imaginary killer who was coming for me.

“If ever I had to speak about the incident I would have a panic attack in which I would gasp for air.”

In a statement, Bebe King’s family say they were “robbed of the opportunity to protect our girls”.

They did not talk about their beloved daughter as they did not think Rudakubana deserved to know about her.

Speaking to the judge, they said: “He took our daughter, her life and her future and everything she could have been.”

They said there was “no greater pain” than losing their daughter, and refer to the sentence they expect the judge to hand down but it cannot be read out as per the rules of the court.

They say “We hope he uses his time in prison to reflect on the gravity of what he has done.”

Though they have “little faith” he will ever demonstrate remorse though “perhaps he will have the opportunity to contemplate the fear and terror he inflicted on those girls”.

Some statements will not be heard in court because the victims did not want them read out, however, the judge has read all the statements before the hearing.

The prosecutor is now reading a statement written by the parents of Alice da Silva Aguiar, who had “a world of dreams and unlimited potential”.

They described the stabbing as “a pin drop that changed our lives forever”.

“We kept our hopes up every second during Alice’s 14-hour fight but once she had lost her fight, we lost our lives.”

They say: “It feels like we’re stuck in a 5D horror movie with moving pictures and moments being relived.

“It has fear, anxiety, loss, and terror all over it and it’s playing on loop. We can’t get out.”

They say going out does not feel safe and “any attempts to lighten up, a smile and a laugh are quickly met by regret and guilt. How can we ever smile if Alice is not here?”

Alice’s mother talks about not being able to be alone and that the darkness feels as though there is someone there to hurt the family.

They say families of Alice’s friends have been left with PTSD. “Most have not seen footage or Alice the way we did, and we’re thankful for that. Those images are haunting and left a debilitating scar to the soul.”

“We will miss Alice forever. Her energy, contagious smile, assertive confidence and undeterred determination to find herself, grow into herself. She was brilliant. She was our everything, so how can we make anything else matter?”

They describe how nothing can bring them joy and that they cannot do their daily habits without her. “Coming back from work and hearing her say ‘Ola Papa’ or ‘Ola Mama’, our ‘see you later alligator’ and the ‘in a while crocodiles’.”

They say they will “ will miss our perfect baby girl forever”.

A 14-year-old victim is “determined to speak”, the prosecutor says. She is giving evidence remotely, a facility that is provided for child victims of crime.

She reads confidently, explaining the events running up to the attack and how a “warm and sunny” day turned into a “living nightmare”.

She speaks to Rudakubana: “The thing I remember most about you is your eyes. You didn’t look human and you looked possessed.”

She describes the attack and how she helped the younger girls get away.

“The fear I had not knowing where my sister was and screaming her name, I couldn’t see her. I didn’t know if she had got out. I will never forget that blind panic.”

She describes horrendous injuries inflicted by the killer and questioning whether she was going to die.

She says she felt “lonely” after the attack because nobody at school knew what to say to her. “I have to have a special chair in school, because the usual chairs dig into my scars.”

She and her sister have nightmares and her father has had to close his business because he has “not been able to cope mentally”.

She says: “No sane person could do that, it’s sickening what you did, going in there knowing you’re going into a room full of defenceless children. Give me a reason for what you did. Arming yourself with a weapon and stabbing children. I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward.”

She adds: “I am still so angry.”

Leanne Lucas, the dance teacher who was seriously injured during the attack is reading her own statement.

She says: “As a 36-year-old woman I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died.”

She speaks poignantly, with a strong voice, about having “lost my role, my purpose and my job”, feeling as if she cannot look after children again.

She describes the trauma as “horrendous”.

“He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey. To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible.

“For Alice, Elsie, Bebe, Heidi and the surviving girls, I’m surviving for you.”

Victim personal statements are now starting.

One victim’s father describes asking his daughter about the attack, and her reporting having “scars that will be with me forever”. He describes his daughter as a “hero”.

On 22 July 2024, he wore the same clothes as during the Southport attack and got in a taxi to his former school. His father spotted him and pleaded with the taxi driver not to take him. It was the last day of school and prosecutors said it was an earlier attempt to carry out an attack like he carried out at the Hart Space a week later.

In December 2019, he took a hockey stick to school, which he used to attack another pupil.

In 2021, Rudakubana was diagnosed as autistic and in the same year was referred to Prevent three times for researching school shootings and the London Bridge terror attack.

In 2022, he was reported missing and was found by police with a small kitchen knife. He said he wanted to stab someone “so that he would get into trouble and his Tik Tok account, which contained embarrassing videos that he was unable to delete, would be closed down by the police”.

We are now hearing about Rudakubana’s background.

He was born in Cardiff and moved to Southport in 2013.

In 2019, he contacted Childline and asked: “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” He said he had taken a knife to school and might use it on someone he hated at school, who he said bullied him.

A referral was made to police, who visited him, and the school was also informed. He had been temporarily excluded by this point, and this became permanent.

He was later asked why he brought a knife to school and he said: “To use it.”

A machete, arrows and a second large kitchen knife were also discovered inside his home.

Three computers were retrieved, one of which contained an Al-Qaeda manual, part of which detailed how to carry out a knife attack. Another part advised how to kill people with ricin, which the prosecutor said shows he knew how deadly the substance was when he made it.

The computers also contained graphic images of wars and conflicts, with images depicting dead bodies, victims of torture and beheadings. He also had cartoons mocking different religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

These were “a window into the defendant’s mind”, Deanna Heer KC says.

Rudakubana is screaming that he feels ill again and has been removed from the court.

He shouted: “Judge I feel really ill I need to see a paramedic.

“Judge! Judge!

“I need to be seen by a paramedic! I feel ill!”

Heer goes on to talk about searches that were done in the killer’s home in the village of Banks, near Southport. The search soon came to a halt when ricin was discovered in a plastic food container under his bed.

Lab testing confirmed the substance had been made using equipment from his bedroom. Less than a gram of ricin can cause multi-organ failure, enough to kill an adult, and there is no antidote. There was no evidence that he used the ricin during this attack or at another time.

The prosecution is now talking through the examination of the scene and the weapon used in the attack, a single large kitchen knife.

Deanna Heer KC describes how Rudakubana was arrested and taken to a local police station.

He remained silent in interviews, however, while in custody made a number of comments about the attack, which included: “I’m glad those kids are dead, it makes me happy,” and “So happy, six years old. It’s a good thing they are dead, yeah.”

We are back from a lunch break.

Rudakubana’s defence barrister has said he was found by a doctor to be “fit and well” and that he understands that he cannot interrupt court proceedings.

The court is now taking a break, which is common after distressing and disturbing details have been read out.

Court will be back in session at 2pm.