Southport parents express pain as Rudakubana is sentenced

The parents of girls murdered by Axel Rudakubana have told Liverpool Crown Court of their “pain and horror” as they describe the impact the murders have had on their lives, as the killer has been sentenced.

Nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguirre, six-year-old Babe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe were stabbed to death by an 18-year-old boy at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time, also stabbed eight other children and two adults.

The victims’ families were not in court on Monday when Rudakubana unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty.

People affected by knife attacks are reading victim impact statements.

Reporting restrictions protect the identities of injured children.

Warning: This article contains disturbing and disturbing details.

A statement read from Alexandra and Sergio Aguirre described how “in a matter of minutes our world was shattered and turned upside down by the devastating attack on our Alice”.

“A pin drop that changed our lives forever,” he said.

“Everything stopped and we were frozen in time and space. Our lives went with him. He took us too.”

She said her daughter had “always been a very kind-hearted girl, who valued equality and fairness above all else” and that “a world of possibilities was waiting for her”.

“We were so lucky and blessed to have her. Every day felt like a gift,” he said.

“Alice was a beautiful girl, perfect in every way. She loved her school, her friends. Music, dancing, colored pens and friendship bracelets. She loved Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter.”

He described her as “a strong and confident pre-teen with a world of dreams and limitless possibilities.”

“Our bond was very strong, the love in the family was pure. Life was blissful.

She described how “life was fun”, and how they planned a surprise trip to Disneyland and how on that hot July day last year Alice had woken up in the morning excited to go to the workshop and play in the garden with her friends . Pool in the afternoon.

“It was a perfect plan for a perfect day,” he said.

“It was the best start to her beautiful day, but also the worst.”

“Our dream girl was taken away in such a horrible and disrespectful way that it shatters our souls,” the statement said.

“We are saddened that we can never help Alice achieve her dreams, that we can no longer hug her, brush her hair, walk her to school through her beloved Botanic Garden can go

“We can no longer wake up to Alice’s happy smile, be playful or get a morning kiss and hug from her.

“We’ll do anything to capture Alice one more time.”

He described feeling as if he was trapped in a “horror movie” with “fear, anxiety, loss and terror… running on loop”.

He described how it was “hard to feel happy, enjoy music and see the good in life, when the center of our universe has been taken away”.

“Any attempt to lighten up, smile and laugh quickly turns into regret and guilt,” he said.

“How can we smile if Alice is not here?

“We will always fight to find light and peace again.

“We will always miss Alice, her energy, infectious smile, fierce self-confidence and indomitable determination to find herself, to grow into herself.

“She was brilliant, she was our everything. Living life without Alice is not living at all. It is a state of permanent numbness.”

The mother of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe has told how she lost her “best friend” when her daughter was murdered.

In a statement read on behalf of the victim, Jenny Stancomb told Rudakubana that she did not deserve to know that her daughter was an “extraordinary person.”

He said, “You know what you have done and we hope that the weight of that knowledge continues to haunt you every day.”

“The nature of your actions is beyond contempt.

“You deliberately chose that location, knowing full well that there would be no parents present, knowing full well that those girls were vulnerable and unable to protect themselves.”

He said it was “not an act of passion, it was premeditated”.

He said, “You chose that place, that time and those circumstances knowing that when we get there, we will have to see the result of the destruction that happened there.”

“We were robbed of the opportunity to protect our girls. If we had been there, this would never have happened, and the outcome would have been very different.

“What you did was not only cruel and pure evil; it was an act of cowardice.”

He said the family would honor Elsie Dot’s memory, adding: “We will carry on her love, positivity and her legacy, no matter how much pain she caused you”.

Addressing Justice Goose in the statement, she said: “He took our daughter, her life, her future and everything she could have been.

“There is no greater loss than this, and no greater pain than this. His actions have caused us grief throughout our lives, and it is only right that he must face this too.”

“There is nothing that can compensate for the harm he has caused, but knowing that he will never be free to cause any harm to vulnerable children again will give us a bit of justice.

“Perhaps he will have the opportunity to reflect on the fear and terror he inflicted on those girls and we sincerely want him to reflect on the consequences of the irreparable harm he has caused.”

The girl, who was stabbed by Rudakubana during the attack, addressed him directly in court, saying, “You looked possessed and you did not look human”.

The girl, who cannot be legally identified because of her age and is known only as Child F, told Liverpool Crown Court that she knew from his eyes that “he wanted to kill us all”. .

She attended the class with her sister and said that a “sunny and hot” day turned into a “living nightmare”.

Child F said: “The dance club was full of laughter and excitement all morning with girls full of life.

“My nightmare started when I saw you. I thought you were joking.”

“I saw you in the green hoodie and face mask.

“The thing I remember most about you are your eyes. You seemed obsessed and you didn’t seem human.”

She remembered watching him attack and his approach towards her feeling like “slow motion”.

She said she remembered screaming and “blind panic” around her and “yelling at the girls to get down the stairs”.

Speaking directly to Rudakubana, she said: “I remember physically pushing them down the stairs to get them out of the building and away from you.

“I knew I was running for my life.

“I knew by your eyes that you wanted to try to kill us all.”

His injuries included a fracture of his spine and a collapsed lung, but he said the mental stress was extensive.

She said: “Some of us are getting better physically, but we will all have to live forever with the mental pain from that day.

“I want you to know that you have changed my and my sister’s lives forever, but as long as you remain behind bars alone, I will make sure that my sister and I and our family will be able to move forward with our lives. do our best.”