A Nation Mourns: The Southport Stabbings
I write this article with a heavy heart and nothing but deep sorrow for the young girls, the adults attacked on the scene and the families affected by this horrendous attack. My prayers go to the families of Bebe King, Elise Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar. This piece is by far the most harrowing story that I have written on my blog however feel need to report the details of this case.
This case will contain distressing details and upsetting material, acknowledging the fact that I am an amateur journalist, I will not be including pictures of the young girls killed out of respect for their families. As well as not including a picture of Rudakubana.
The case:
On the 29th July 2024, Axel Rudakubana ( 17) who with intention to mass murder took a taxi to an advertised ‘Taylor Swift Dance Class’ for young girls in Southport
Rushing into the dance class with a 20cm kitchen knife brought on Amazon using a VPN to protect his identity, Rudakubana stabbed 11 children and 2 adults out of the 25 children attending the dance class
The little girls killed at the scene was Bebe King (6) Elise Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9)
While under arrest he told police that he was “glad” children were dead and it was a “good thing”
Pressure to reveal his identity:
Due to Rudakubana being 17 at the time of the stabbings, his identity was protected and hidden to the public…
This lead to speculation around the identity of the murderer, which led to racially fueled riots targeted towards the asian and muslim community
Just one day after the murders, on the 30th of July rioters damaged mosques in response to speculations of the hidden identity of the killer being a muslim migrant
Due to the riots the Prime Minister (Kier Starmer) quickly revealed that the Southport stabbings were not terror related
Rudakubana’s identity was forced to be revealed to stop the riots on the 1st of August
Rudakubana is a British born, black male with Rwandan parents
was it terror related?
Focusing on the fact Starmer deemed this attack as non terror related… it has now emerged that Starmer, the Home Secretary and the police did understand that Rudakubana was involved with terrorism
Found in his bedroom in his family home was an Al-Qaeda terrorist handbook, and traces of ricin poison that he had made
He was also referred in 2019 - 2021 to the anti extremism program three times
It has been noted that the killer has an obsession with violence and didn’t follow a certain ideology, which meant that traditionally he couldn't have been labelled a terrorist
Fixating on his obsession of violence it has been discovered that Rudakubana had an open liking to Hitler and Genghis Khan
Trial
On the 20th of January, Rudakubana pleaded guilty despite previously pleading not guilty beforehand, cuts his trial short and will be sentenced on the 23rd of January
On the day of his hearing, Rudakubana was removed twice due to him shouting to the judge that he was ‘ill’
Axel Rudakubana was absent for his sentencing after leaving the courtroom for the second time after screaming for help in claims he needs to go to hospital
Despite this Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum of 51 years and 190 days
