A UK teenager who stabbed 3 girls to death in Southport will be sentenced today

The sentencing hearing for the teenager who killed three girls and injured 10 others last summer in a knife attack at a dance class in Southport, England, began Thursday.

Judge Julian Goose, who presided over the case, told the attacker, Axel Rudakubana, 18, that a life sentence would not be avoided after he pleaded guilty on Monday.

Mr. Rudakubana appeared at Liverpool Crown Court wearing a gray sweatsuit, with a blue mask covering his mouth and nose. When the judge asked him to confirm his name, he refused to speak and kept his head in his lap.

But before the sentencing hearing started, the prosecutors were still studying the details of the case, Mr. Rudakubana started screaming from the defendant’s port at the back of the room, “I need to talk to the first aid because I’m sick.”

The judge noted that medical experts had examined Mr. Rudakubana that morning decided that he was ready to go to trial. His lawyer told the judge that the defendant had not eaten for several days, and Mr. Rudakubana continued to shout for several minutes.

Judge Goose said: “This trial is being conducted by me, not yours, Mr. Rudakubana. Do you understand?” He then ordered that Mr. Rudakubana be removed from the court, saying, “I will not make him interfere.”

Before the conviction of Mr. Rudakubana Thursday, the prosecutors read the details of the case against them, revealing the painful nature of the attack on July 29. Deanna Heer, the attorney for the prosecutors, said that “it was aimed at the youngest, the most vulnerable in order to spread a great level of fear and anger, which they succeeded in doing.”

He told the court that when Mr. Arrested at the police station after the attack, Rudakubana was heard saying, “It’s a good thing those children are dead” and “I’m very happy.”

Mrs. Heer recounts how he took a taxi to Hart Space, where Taylor Swift’s sold-out dance class for 6- to 11-year-olds was on during the summer break from school.

Visual evidence shown in court, taken from CCTV footage and body cameras worn by police at the scene, showed Mr. Rudakubana arrived outside the dance floor which was full of 26 children.

He entered the building and burst into a room, stabbing several children and Leanne Lucas, who had organized the class. Moments later, a sound was heard on the CCTV footage outside, before the children started running from the building.

Some were covered in blood and fell before anyone could help them. At one point, a dance teacher who had protected one of the teenage girls in the bathroom was seen being helped by the police out of the room.

Several people cried in court as the video showed, and several chose to leave, overcome with emotion.

In this incident, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, were seriously injured and died inside the building, police said. Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, ran outside with other children but soon collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital and died the next day. Eight other children and two adults were injured in the attack.

Since Mr. Rudakubana, who pleaded guilty on Monday, has emerged as a violent teenager, having been on the radar of local authorities for years before the knife attack on July 29 in Southport, the city. north of Liverpool.

After the attack, Britain was rocked by a series of riots as anonymous information about the attacker’s identity spread on social media and messaging apps. False claims that you are an undocumented immigrant or a newly arrived asylum seeker are being promoted by right-wing activists. Mr. Rudakubana is a British citizen who was born in Wales to Rwandan parents.

There is no evidence that he is affiliated with any political or religious ideology, police and prosecutors said.

At the age of 13 and 14, he was sent three times to Prevent, the British counter-terrorism program, for violence rehabilitation, but those referrals were eventually dropped because it was determined each time that he did not meet the threshold for intervention.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in Downing Street on Tuesday that the attack was a sign that terrorism in the country was emerging, and that young people were being victimized by a “wave of violence that is freely available on the Internet.”

“We’re also seeing acts of extreme violence by lone individuals, misfits, young men in their bedrooms, accessing all sorts of things on the internet, looking to be disappointed,” said Mr. because of it.”

Mr. Rudakubana was also convicted of the weapons charge of possessing a knife used in an attack, producing biological poison and “having information” which is defined as “of the kind that may be useful to a person who commits or prepares a certain act.” of terrorism” after investigators found ricin, a deadly poison, and a PDF file titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual” in his home.

The judge cannot sentence him to life in prison without parole, because he was 17 years old when he was attacked.

In 2019, Mr. Rudakubana was expelled after bringing a knife to school and a few months later he returned to attack a student with a hockey stick. He was then enrolled in a school for children with special needs.

He had been withdrawn from his family and community long before the attack, until he left home.

A week before the attack, Mr. Rudakubana tried to go to his high school, the police said, but his father ran out of the house and begged the taxi driver not to take him. Finally, the young man returned to the house.

This case has raised questions about how it is possible that the authorities lost the opportunity to stop the violence before it started. The government said it will conduct a public inquiry into the case to better understand what happened and what needs to be changed. But the case also highlighted the issue of young people primed for extreme violence accessing online images and messages that fuel that addiction.