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Taylor Swift met with two injured victims of the Southport knife attack at her Wembley gig at the weekend.
The ‘Cruel Summer’ singer, 34, from Pennsylvania, invited the two young girls to her performance, granting them backstage access, and posing for photos, ahead of ‘the hardest concert of her career’ following the stabbings.
Three children were killed and eight injured after a knifeman launched an attack at a dance studio in Southport in July. The yoga instructor who taught the class was said to have shielded up to 16 innocent children from the rampage.
Victims Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed at the Swift-themed class on July 29.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, has been charged with the murder of the three girls in Merseyside and for the attempted murder of yoga class instructor Leanne Lucas, businessman John Hayes, and eight children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as possession of a kitchen knife with a curved blade.
Following the Merseyside attack, false allegations concerning the suspect’s identity were spread online with some posts speculating that he was a migrant who had been on the MI6 watchlist.
Far-right-fuelled riots unfurled on UK streets in the aftermath, with a current total of 1,117 arrests and 677 charges made in connection to the disorder.
Swift reportedly reached out to the families of the Southport stabbings ahead of her August performances at Wembley where she welcomed 92,000 eager fans to the final European leg of her Era’s Tour.
Speaking to The Daily Mail an insider said: ‘Taylor may not have spoken about Elsie Dot, Alice and Bebe on stage but she has reached out to their families,’ ‘it is something that has weighed heavily on her mind.’
In the days after the tragedy, Swift posted a statement on her Instagram story, saying: “The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously and I’m just in complete shock… The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, the first responders.
“These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
Earlier this month, Swift’s Vienna performances were disrupted by an Islamic State terror plot unveiled by Vienna police.
