Southport child-killer’s violent past outlined in court before sentencing
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Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana was referred to Prevent for researching American school shootings, the London Bridge terror attack and uploading pictures of Colonel Gaddafi to Instagram, a court heard. Details of the 18-year-old’s background were read out by prosecutors at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, including an incident in October 2019 in which he contacted Childline and asked: “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?”.
Rudakubana was also reported missing in March 2022 before he was found by police in possession of a small kitchen knife. Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court that the defendant had said he “wanted to stab someone” so he could get his TikTok account taken down as it contained “embarrassing videos that he was unable to delete”.
The court has heard horrific details of the “sadistic” murders carried out by Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Hart Space on a small business park in Southport shortly before midday on July 29 last year. Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died in the attack, and Rudakubana also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
In her opening of the case, Ms Heer told the court: “On October 4, 2019, he contacted Childline and asked, ‘What should I do if I want to kill somebody?’. “In the days that followed, he explained that he hated someone at school who bullied him.
