An al-Qaida-obsessed UK teenager was sentenced Thursday for murdering three little girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last summer — stabbing one of the innocent girls 122 times in a “sadistic” slaying.
Axel Rudakubana, who later bragged about being “so happy” the “children are dead,” was sentenced to 13 counts of life in prison — and ordered to serve a minimum of 52 years. He escaped getting the UK equivalent of life without parole because he was only 17 when he killed.
Still, “it is highly likely that he’ll never be released,” Justice Julian Goose said as he ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
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“He wanted to try and carry outmassmurder of innocent, happy young girls,” the judge said atsentencingin Liverpool Crown Court. “It was such extreme violence… it is difficult to comprehend why it was done.”
Rudakubana had unexpectedly pleaded guilty Monday to the heartless killings of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9.
One of the murdered girls was stabbed 122 times and another 85 times in what prosecutor Deanna Heer said was “difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic.”
Rudakubana also admitted 10 counts of attempted murder for stabbing eight other children — ranging in age from 7 to 13 — as well as two adults who rushed to help them during a class for young kids to learn yoga and dance to the songs of Taylor Swift. One of the girls almost made it out a door but was pulled back inside — somehow surviving being stabbed 32 times.
The judge said that Rudakubana aimed to kill “each and everychild” at the party – “all 26 of them.”
After his arrest, “Axel Rudakubana was heard saying ‘It’s a good thing those children are dead… I’m so glad… so happy,’” Heer, the prosecutor, revealed in court.
Rudakubana also admitted to having an al-Qaida training manual — titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants” — as well as the deadly poison ricin at home. Other documents he kept were onNazi Germany, car bombsandthe genocide in Rwanda, where his parents are from.
Heer told the court that the teen “researched atrocities committed by others” and “set out to emulate them” — but despite having the terror manual, he “wasn’t fighting for a cause.”
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“His only purpose was to kill, and he targeted the youngest, most vulnerablein order tospread the greatest level of fear and outrage, which he succeeded in doing,” Heer said.
Rudakubana wasn’t in court to hear his sentencing Thursday having earlierdelayed it by screaming“I feel pain” and whining about not having “eaten for 10 days.”
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He was twice removed — with a family member of one of the murdered children shouting after him, “Coward!”
Elsie Dot Stancombe’s mother, Jenny Stancombe, told the killer in an impact statement that she hopes his crime “haunts you every single day.”
“What you did was not only cruel and pure evil, it was the act of a coward,” she said.
Alice da Silva Aguiar’s parents, meanwhile, saidtheir daughter’s killing had “shattered our souls.”
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“Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”they asked.
Leanne Lucas, the class teacher who was stabbed trying to save the kids, said that “the trauma of being both a victim and a witness has been horrendous.”
“I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died?” she said.
A 14-year-old survivor, who can’t be named because of a court order, said everyone there will “have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”
She told the killer: “I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward.”
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Before the heinous murders, Rudakubana had from the age of 13 been referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, for researching school shootings and terror attacks.
He was convicted for attacking a fellow student with a hockey stick and openly admitted taking a knife to school — and in 2019, even phoned a children’s advice line to ask “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?”
Shockingly, he was still allowed to remain at large, amassing terrorist materials, poisonandthe knives he used to kill.
UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer called it “one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history.”
“What happened in Southport was an atrocity and as the judge has stated, this vile offender will likely never be released,” he said.
“We owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve,” he said of a public inquiry ordered into the atrocity and missed warnings.
The murders had sparked a week of riots across the UK after erroneous rumors spread that the attacker was a newly arrived asylum-seeker. However, Rudakubana was born and raised in Wales to Rwandan parents.
The riots did not affect sentencing, the judge states.
Because Rudakubana committed the heinous crimes just days before his 18th birthday, UK law meant he could not be sentenced to a full-life term, the UK equivalent of life without the possibility of parole.
However, his case sparked calls for the law to be changed, with the Attorney General’s office confirming it has already been asked to review the sentence for being too short.
With Post wires