LONDON (AP) — A teenager obsessed with violence faces decades in prison when he is sentenced Thursday for fatally stabbing three young girls in what prosecutors called a “sadistic” attack during a Taylor Swift-themed summer dance class.
Axel Rudakubana18, sat in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit and with his head between his knees, as a judge prepared to arraign him. condemn for the July 29 attack, which devastated the seaside town of Southport. shocked the country and trigger both street violence and introspection.
But as prosecutors began presenting evidence, Rudakubana interrupted them by shouting from the dock that he felt ill and wanted to see a paramedic.
Judge Julian Goose urged the lawyers to continue, then ordered the defendant removed when he continued to shout.
Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder for the people he injured and additional counts of possessing a knife, poisonous ricin and a manual of Al -Qaeda. He unexpectedly he changed his plea to guilty on all charges Monday.
The attack happened on the first day of summer vacation, when two dozen little girls were “gathered around tables, making bracelets and singing Taylor Swift songs,” prosecutor Deanna Heer told the court. Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, entered and started stabbing girls and their teacher.
He lunged at each child in turn, the prosecutor said, acting so quickly that it was not until teacher Leanne Lucas herself was stabbed that she realized what was happening.
The court was shown video of Rudakubana arriving at Hart Space in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children fled the building in panic, some of them injured.
Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the video was played.
Rudakubana killed Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. Eight other girls, ages 7 to 13, were injured, along with Lucas and John Hayes, who worked at a nearby business. and intervened.
Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly gruesome injuries that are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.”
She said Rudakubana had no political or religious cause, but had “a long-standing obsession with violence, murder and genocide.”
“His sole purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as relatives of the victims looked on in the courtroom.
Heer said that when he was taken to the police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It’s a good thing these children are dead, I’m so happy, I’m so happy.”
The crime sparked anti-immigrant riots and led the government to reconsider its definition of terrorism, its approach to online radicalization and the way information about criminal suspects is made public.
The killings in the north-west English town sparked days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized incorrect reporting that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the United Kingdom. Some suggested the crime was a jihadist attack and alleged the police and government were withholding information.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan Christian parents, and investigators have been unable to pin down his motivation. Police found documents on his devices on topics including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs.
In the years leading up to the attack, he had been reported to several authorities because of his violent interests and actions. Interior Minister Yvette Cooper told lawmakers on Tuesday that Rudakubana “was found guilty of violently assaulting another child at school” and had multiple contacts with children’s social services, mental health department and the police, who were called to his home five times for his behavior. 2019 and 2022. He was referred three times to the government’s counter-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 years old.
Not all agencies understood the danger he represented.
The government said the case was a wake-up call. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it must lead to a “fundamental change” in the way the state protects its citizens, announcing a public inquiry into the failures that allowed Rudakubana to go on his knife-wielding rampage. he had ordered from Amazon.
He said laws may need to be updated to combat a “new threat” from violent individuals whose combination of motivations challenges the traditional definition of terrorism, “acts of a extreme violence committed by loners, misfits, young men in their rooms.”
The Crown Prosecution Service defended the decision not to release the details before Rudakubana attended court, saying “releasing this information earlier would have put the trial at risk”. British contempt of court laws limit what can be reported before trial, in an attempt to avoid jury bias.
