Axel Rudakubana has admitted to killing three girls at a dance class in Southport on the first day of his trial. The 18-year-old was to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday charged with 16 offences, including three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.
Dramatically changing his plea at the last moment, the teenager admitted to all the charges. He pleaded guilty to the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine. He also admitted to possessing terrorist material and producing the toxin ricin.
Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday, Mr Justice Goose said in court. He told the teenager that it would be inevitable that a life sentence equivalent would be imposed upon him.
The judge also apologised to the families of the victims who, because of Rudakubana’s surprise guilty plea, were not in court to see his admission.
Here’s everything we know about the devastating Southport attack of July 2024.
What did Axel Rudakubana do?
On the morning of 29 July 2024, then 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana travelled from his home village of Banks in Lancashire via taxi. He was then seen calmly exiting the vehicle and entering the dance studio on Hart Street.
In just minutes, witnesses would describe seeing young girls being carried out of the building covered in blood with stab wounds to their backs, while their screaming parents rushed to find them.
Advertised for children aged between years 2 and 6 at primary school, the summer event quickly turned to “a scene from a horror movie”, with an enormous emergency incident declared.
Bebe and Elsie both died at the scene. Alice died in hospital the day after the incident.
Ten others were injured, including eight children, yoga teacher Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, who both had heroically attempted to prevent the attack.
He has now pleaded guilty to all charges of murder and attempted murder, as well as terror-related offences. He was found to have a PDF file titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” and charged with possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
What happened after the attack?
Shortly after the murders, violent riots broke out across the country. These were fuelled by far-right misinformation online which claimed that Rudakubana – whose identity was not yet public – was a Muslim and asylum seeker. Much of the violence was targeted towards Muslim and migrant communities.
Over the course of six days, the rioting became the largest incident of social unrest in the UK since the 2011 riots. Attempting to tackle the violence, around 130 police officers were injured. By September, 1,280 arrests had been made, with 800 charged.
In the months since his crime and the subsequent riots, Rudakubana had remained consistently silent in the dock, with prosecutors and investigators compiling CCTV and witness statements to establish the case against him.
In a previous appearance, the court heard that Rudakubana had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and had refused to engage with a psychiatrist at a police station. In the period leading up to the attack, he had also been unwilling to communicate with his family and had not been leaving the house.
Rudakubana’s not-guilty pleas were entered on his behalf in December 2024, as he chose not to speak. But as each charge was read to him on 20 January this year, the teenager quietly said “guilty” to each count.
Public inquiry
The home secretary announced on Monday that there will be a public inquiry into how Rudakubana “came to be so dangerous” and why Prevent “failed to identify the terrible risk” he posed to others.
Yvette Cooper confirmed the 18-year-old had “contact with a range of different state agencies throughout his teenage years” before carrying out his “meticulously planned rampage”.
Ms Cooper said in a statement: “He was referred three times to the Prevent programme between December 2019 and April 2021 aged 13 and 14.
“He also had contact with the police, the courts, the Youth Justice system, social services and mental health services.
“Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed.”
Announcing the public inquiry, the Home Secretary continued: “Although, in line with CPS advice to preserve the integrity of the prosecution, we were constrained in what we were able to say at the time, the Home Office commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review during the summer into the three referrals that took place and why they were closed.
“We will publish further details this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent programme.
“But we also need more independent answers on both Prevent and all the other agencies that came into contact with this extremely violent teenager as well as answers on how he came to be so dangerous, including through a public inquiry that can get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change.”
