A mum of one of the girls killed in the Southport attack has told how she found out “something awful happened” at the dance studio. Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were stabbed to death by Axel Rudakubana, 18, on July 29. The three had gone to a Taylor Swift-themed children’s holiday club when the knife rampage took place on July 29. Emergency services descended on Hart Street in the town and a local resident described the scene as being like a “horror movie” following the attack at around 11.50am.
And now the parents of the children have spoken of their grief and how they found out about the tragedy. “She was a Swiftie through and through,” Elsie’s mum Jenni said and she told how her husband David dropped her off at the event at 10am. And the plan was for Elsie to be picked up by the mother of a friend, and she would go and play with her pal until 3pm. She remembers taking her to the stairs of the studio where she was met by the dance class leader Leanne Lucas and then Elsie ran off to to where the other children were sitting in a circle.
“I watched her sit down and waved her off and I left her.” Jenni told The Sunday Times and then she found out about midday of the tragedy. Jenni got a call from the other mother. “Something awful has happened. Somebody’s stabbed the kids,” she said. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’.” Jenni says. “She went, ‘It’s really bad. You need to get here.’ ” Jenni and David dashed down to the dance studio.
“I just ran. I left the whole house open and got in the car. It’s a five-minute drive from ours and we must have got there in a minute. We kept our hands on the horn, going faster and faster, jumping every red light on the road, we were on the other side of the road, people throwing their hands up to us. "I just didn’t care, I just kept whacking the horn. We got there and just deserted the car in the middle of the road and just ran. And by that point police started trying to push people back.” They both tried to get into the dance studio but they were being pushed back by the police.
Jenni said: “The police just lifted David off his feet and said, ‘You’re not getting in there, mate’.” They ran off in different directions, searching for Elsie. “You knew when you got there how bad it was,” David added. “No human being should ever have to witness what we witnessed on that day.”. Gradually the full extent of the tragedy emerged and the attacker was revealed as Rudakubana. He was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years following the ramage. He also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as class instructor Ms Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
