Southport attack survivor says victims have ‘scars we cannot unsee’
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A dance teacher injured in the Southport attack has said Axel Rudakubana’s victims have scars “we cannot unsee”, as survivors gave their harrowing accounts of the day. Leanne Lucas was overseeing a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on July 29 last year, when Rudakubana entered the building armed with a knife and attacked children and adults.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died in the attack at the Hart Space, and Rudakubana also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Ms Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
At Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, Ms Lucas told of living in constant fear since the attack, unable to feel safe at work or in public places and said she can not give herself compassion or accept praise, adding: “How can I live knowing I survived when children died?”.
She said it left her unable to trust society, revealing the “badness” lurking in plain sight and altering her mindset to believe harm can happen to anyone. The 36-year-old told the court that she dedicated her life to helping children and families, creating a safe community, but the attack robbed her of her role, purpose and sense of trust in herself.
Ms Lucas said: “On that day, I received several injuries that have not only affected me physically but also mentally. I, as do the girls, have scars we cannot unsee, scars we cannot move on from.”. She described the trauma of being both a victim and a witness as “horrendous” but said she is “surviving” for the victims, telling the court “to discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible”.
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