Rudakubana, 18, was not in court as his victim’s spoke of their anguish after he started shouting from the dock. Inside Liverpool Crown Court, a tense silence descended as victim’s families gathered in the public gallery, anxiously waiting for Southport killer Axel Rudakubana to enter the dock.
![[Police officers line the streets outside Liverpool Crown Court prior to the departure of Axel Rudakubana]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/23/17/01JJA04TYR1B105F17T52G01GK.jpg)
The sentencing hearing, scheduled for 11am, had already started late as police, legal teams, families and journalists had made their way through enhanced security amid heightened tensions over the shocking case. Every seat was taken, with some choosing to sit in parts of the public gallery with no view of the dock. A piece of frosted glass obscured any chance of catching even a fleeting glimpse of the remorseless killer, described by his own lawyer as having a “total lack of empathy”.
![[From left to right: Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the mass stabbing]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/23/19/3c9ad3eebdebc42a23d1a2a793cc1a73Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NzQ1MjQ0-2.78745096.jpg)
Others, including the grief-stricken parents of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Alexandra and Sergio, had a clear view of the daughter’s murderer. They watched as Rudakubana, tall and slight, finally entered the glass-screened dock wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit and a surgical facemask like the one he wore on the day he targeted 26 defenceless girls at a Taylor Swift themed holiday class in Southport last July.
He refused to speak when asked to confirm his identity and sat slumped in the dock with his head bowed accompanied by five dock officers. The sentencing hearing had come more rapidly than anyone had anticipated. They had all been braced for a harrowing four-week trial which they were spared after the 18-year-old changed his plea without warning on Monday. However, any hope the families had that Rudakubana would accept his punishment with dignity were soon dashed.
