How Southport killer Axel Rudakubana's vile attack on Taylor Swift dance party unfolded
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A teenager who rushed into a children's Taylor Swift themed dance party and knifed three young girls to death, has pleaded guilty to their murders. Axel Rudakubana who took the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, was born in Cardiff in August 2006. Now 18, he and his family including his mum, dad and older brother moved from Wales to Banks in Lancashire, a few miles from Southport in 2013.
It was 11 years later, on July 29, 2024 that armed with a knife he entered the dance class at the Hart Space in Southport. Bebe, Elsie and Alice were fatally wounded. Eight other children were injured, as were instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes. Within hours police told the media that they had detained a male and seized a knife.
Soon after claims spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat in 2023. Some claims included an alleged identity - which was not Rudakubana. One day later on July 30, a peaceful vigil was held outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue in the evening, where flowers were laid in memory of those who died. But shortly after the vigil, a separate protest began outside the town’s mosque. People were seen throwing items towards the mosque, damaging property and setting police vehicles on fire.
On July 31, demonstrators gathered in Whitehall, London, for an “Enough Is Enough” protest. Flares and cans were thrown at police and more than 100 people were arrested. Disorder also broke out in Hartlepool, County Durham, and Aldershot, Hampshire. The next day police announced that Rudakubana was charged with the murders of Bebe, Elsie Dot and Alice, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article.
