Why Axel Rudakubana will not get a whole life sentence for Southport massacre
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Axel Rudakubana, the teenager who murdered three young girls in the Southport stabbing spree, cannot be given a whole life term when he is sentenced on Thursday. The 18-year-old armed himself with a kitchen knife and launched into an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July.
Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and tried to kill ten others – eight children and two adults. At Liverpool crown court on Monday, Rudakubana was expected to stand trial for the murders and attempted murders.
But in a shock move, he pleaded guilty to all the charges against him. Included in the charges was possession of an Al Qaeda terror manual and production of ricin which police found at his family home. And it has now been revealed that the teenager was referred three times to the government’s counter extremism scheme Prevent, prior to the attack.
Mr Justice Goose adjourned sentencing until Thursday, and told Rudakubana he faces an automatic life sentence. But there is a legal reason why the mass murderer will not be handed a whole life term, despite the horrific nature of his crimes. The stabbings happened on July 29 last year, when Rudakubana arrived at the dance class in Southport armed with a kitchen knife.
Ursula Doyle, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor with CPS Mersey-Cheshire, called it “an unspeakable attack” which Rudakubana had “meticulously planned”. “It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence”, she added.
