A teenager who Three young women were stabbed to death A Taylor Swift-A themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “a most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.”
Judge Julian Goose is 18 years old Excel Rudakubna “Innocent, happy young girls wanted to try and carry out mass murder.”
Goose said he could not impose a life sentence without parole, because Rudakubana was under 18 when he committed the crime.
But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus six months in custody before being considered for parole and “may never be released.”
Rudakubana was 17 when he attacked the children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing Alice da Silva Aguirre, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He also injured eight other girls between the ages of 7 and 13. , along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.
The attack shocked the country Both street violence and soul searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into how it failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to authorities multiple times for his obsession with violence.
Accused disrupts hearing
Rudakubna was charged with three murders, 10 attempted murders and additional charges of possession of a knife, poison ricin and a Al-Qaeda The manual changed unexpectedly He pleaded guilty Monday on all charges
But he was not in court for Thursday’s sentencing.
Hours earlier he was led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But as prosecutors began to outline the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted by shouting that he felt sick and wanted to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the accused to be removed when he continued to scream. A man in the courtroom shouts “Coward!” He shouted. As Rudakubna was extracted.
The hearing continued without him.
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Horror on a summer day
Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack happened on the first day of summer vacation when 26 little girls were “around the table making bracelets and singing Taylor Swift songs.”
Rudakubna, armed with a large knife, broke in and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at the Hart Space venue in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds the screaming started and children ran out in panic, some of them injured. A girl enters the door, but the attacker drags her inside. He was stabbed 32 times but survived.
As the videos played, gasps and sobs could be heard in court.
Two of the dead children suffered “particularly gruesome injuries that are difficult to explain as anything other than tragic in nature,” Heer said. One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, the other 85 injuries.
A teenager obsessed with violence
The prosecutor said that Rudakubana had “a long-standing obsession with violence, murder, genocide.”
“His only intention was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” he said, as relatives of the victims watched in the courtroom.
Heer said that as he was taken to the police station, Rudakubana was heard saying: “It’s a good thing these kids are dead, I’m very happy, I’m very happy.”
The murders started day by day Anti-immigrant violence across the country After far-right activists seized on false reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the UK, some suggested the crime was a jihadist attack and accused the police and government of a cover-up.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales to Christian parents from Rwanda and investigators have not been able to identify his motivation. Police received documents on various issues Nazi Germanythe The Rwandan Genocide And car bomb on his device.
In the years leading up to the attack, he had been reported to multiple authorities for his violent interests and actions. All agencies have failed to grasp the danger it poses.
In 2019, she called a children’s advice line asking “What should I do if I want to kill someone?” He said he took the knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.
Definition of terrorism
Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred to the government’s counter-extremism program, Prevent, three times when he was 13 and 14 — once after researching school shootings in class, then for uploading photos of the Libyan leader. Muammar Gaddafi A on Instagram and for research London terror attack.
But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakubana had no obvious political or religious motive. “His motive was the commission of genocide, not for a specific purpose, but as a consequence in itself,” Heer said.
Prime Minister Care Starmer This week the country must deal with a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motivations tests traditional definitions of terrorism.
“After one of the most painful moments in our nation’s history, we owe it to these innocent young women and all those affected to provide them with the change they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing.
Harrowing testimonies from victims
Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack shattered their lives.
Lucas, 36, who ran dance classes, said the “trauma for both the victim and a witness was horrific.”
“I can’t sympathize with myself or accept praise, since how can I live knowing that I survived when the children died?” she said
A 14-year-old survivor, who cannot be named because of a court order, said she is physically on the mend. “We will all have to live with the emotional pain from that day forever.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your life thinking we’re cowards,” he said.
Prosecutor Alice da Silva read a statement from Aguirre’s parents, who said their daughter’s killing “shatters our souls.”
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn’t seem right,” they said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”
