Latest news with #ElsieDotStancombe
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Southport victims garden plan delayed after council meeting chaos
Police were called to a chaotic Sefton Council meeting that had to abandoned after protestors began "screaming and shouting" at local authority was due to discuss plans for a major revamp of Southport's Town Hall gardens in memory of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Aguiar and Bebe King, when the protest took began when a member of the public about whether the council had turned down any applications for 5G masts on health grounds, before descending into a row. The Mayor of Sefton June Burns halted proceedings after one of the protestors shouted at a councillor to "shut up". People in the public gallery were asking questions about issues including immigration, net zero and 5G masts but became increasingly frustrated and vocal about the responses they were mayor adjourned the meeting on Thursday before much of the agenda could be meeting re-started to enable a group of teenagers to present a petition they had launched to get a BMX park built, but was then halted again and the police of the public shouted "shame on you" and "cowards" as the councillors left the chamber at the meeting on Thursday night. One of the protestors was heard making derogatory comments about a female meeting had to be abandoned before approval could be given to plans to create a new family-friendly space in the Town Hall gardens on Lord this year, the families of the three young girls who were murdered in last summer's knife attacks secured funding from the combined authority and the government for the project. 'Sad moment' Mike Prendergast, leader of the Conservative opposition group, said: "As an opposition councillor, I don't always like the answer that I am given but I don't scream and shout during the meeting to get my point across."He said there "has to be a process and a procedure and we want to get people more engaged in politics" but what happened at the meeting " isn't going to help with that".Prendergast said: "We wanted to ask questions on behalf of the people of Southport but that's now being delayed because a small number of people decided to take it upon themselves to decide that their opinions were more important than other people's."The council's Liberal Democrat group issued a statement which said the suspension of the meeting marked a "sad moment for local democracy" in said: "Residents deserve and need to have their say but it has to be conducted in the right forum. "Shouting from the gallery just throws meetings into disarray and means no one can be heard properly."Sefton's next full council meeting will take place in September. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Sky News
7 days ago
- Sky News
Southport attack: Mother saw CCTV of daughter being 'dragged back into building' - before being stabbed 20 more times
The mother of a girl who escaped the Southport attack before being dragged back inside has told how her daughter is still fighting to survive. Axel Rudakubana, 18, stabbed the girl, referred to as C1 at the public inquiry, a total of 33 times at a Taylor Swift-themed class in the Merseyside seaside town on 29 July last year. She was one of eight children injured, while Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were murdered in what chairman Sir Adrian Fulford called "one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history". The girl, then seven, ran out of the Hart Space building after being attacked, but Rudakubana was seen dragging her back inside in CCTV footage played during his sentencing hearing, which drew gasps in court, before she was stabbed 20 more times. Reading an emotional statement at Liverpool Town Hall on Wednesday, her mother said: "That is how she became known in this nightmare. The girl that was dragged back in." She thanked the teachers who escaped to call police and flag down help but said "the most painful of truths for" her and the girl's father "is that there were no adults to help during both of her attacks". "She was only supported by other children. The courage and strength she found leaves me crushed, but in complete awe," she said. The mother told the inquiry she wanted to tell her "beautiful, articulate, fun-loving" little girl's story, adding: "I want to tell you of her bravery and strength and how hard she is fighting, still now to survive." She added: "It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day." The mother said the "hours and days that followed the attack were a living hell" and her daughter's memories - including a concert of her "idol" Taylor Swift - have "been forfeited to make space for the trauma that she carries". 4:06 "We tell her she was brave. How proud we are that she was able to help other girls. How her strength makes us feel strong. How important what she did that day was. She is her own hero. She may be a survivor of this attack, but she is still trying to survive this, every single day," she said. The surviving victims and their families have been granted anonymity during the inquiry, while the chairman has asked media not to use Rudakubana's police mugshot to avoid distressing them. 'She is our hero' The father of a girl referred to as C3 told how his daughter was the first to escape the scene by running from the building and hiding behind a parked car before jumping through an open car door. "Our nine-year-old daughter was stabbed three times in the back by a coward she didn't even see," he said. "Although she didn't know what was happening - she knew she had to run. She ran out of the studio door, down the stairs, and out of the building." He said she can be seen "looking scared, confused and pained" in CCTV footage of the incident, adding: "It was troubling for us to see what she had to go through, before either of her parents had arrived at the scene." "We are so thankful and proud that despite being critically injured, she was able to make the decisions she did in that terrible moment," he said. The girl's father said his daughter "continues to astound" them with the way she dealt with the attack and her recovery, saying: "It has been inspiring for us to witness." He said she has difficulty sleeping, experiences flashbacks, looks over her shoulder scanning for potential danger when she leaves the house, has a fear of loud noises and has to turn off some songs when they come on the radio. "Our daughter knows that she is loved," he said. "It is through this support and love that she will continue to thrive. We couldn't be prouder of her. She is our hero." Attack 'changed everything' The mother of a girl referred to as C8 said she was "like any other seven-year-old little girl", "with an incredible energy" and "full of life". But in a statement read out by a legal representative, she said the attack last year "changed everything" when she got a "panicked phone call" from a friend's mother, who couldn't find the girls. "That moment, the sound of fear in her voice and the panic I felt will never leave me," she said. "I rushed to the scene and what I saw is something no parent should ever see. My daughter had sustained serious physical injuries including a stab wound to her arm and a cut to her face and chin." 2:02 She said her daughter "remembers the attack vividly" and later told her "she thought it had to be fake, because she couldn't believe something that terrible could really be happening". "Where she was once eager to go off with her friends, she now needs my support if it is somewhere public or unknown," she said. "Simple days out now need a level of safety planning that we would never have considered before." 'Constant flashbacks' The mother of a girl referred to as Q, who was one of 15 children who escaped without physical injuries, told how she arrived to collect her daughter to find "children running from the building, screaming and fearing for their lives". In a statement read to the inquiry by a legal representative on her behalf, she said it was "the most horrific experience of my life". "What I saw on that day will stick with me forever, I constantly have flashbacks and relive what happened," she said. She said her daughter has become "very withdrawn" since the attack and has asked her parents, "How will I ever be normal again?" Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January and is being investigated over an alleged attack on a prison officer at Belmarsh prison in May. The public inquiry, announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in January, is looking into whether the attack could or should have been prevented, given what was known about the killer. Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, had contact with police, the courts, the youth justice system, social services and mental health services, and was referred to the government's anti-extremism Prevent scheme three times before the murders. A rapid review into his contact with Prevent found his case should have been kept open and that he should have been referred to Channel, another anti-terror scheme. C1's mother said: "She deserves the truth, she deserves accountability. She deserves an apology. Our girls deserve an apology.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- The Guardian
Girl, seven, ‘fought like hell' and shielded others, parents tell Southport inquiry
The parents of a seven-year-old girl who was stabbed 33 times in the Southport atrocity have described how their daughter 'fought like hell' to escape after shielding other children from the attacker. The girl suffered 'catastrophic' injuries when she was set upon by Axel Rudakubana as she tried to protect another child at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year. She managed to escape but was dragged back into the building by the 18-year-old who stabbed her another 20-plus times in 11 seconds, before she managed to flee again. The little girl, whose parents said she had once been 'completely carefree' and loved adventure, lost her body's entire blood volume but survived thanks to two life-saving operations at Alder Hey hospital. They were one of four sets of parents who described their 'living nightmare' on the first day of evidence in the Southport inquiry on Wednesday. The mother and father said the victims of the attack deserved an apology and that they wanted to see 'meaningful, substantial change to ensure no child will ever share our daughter's experience again'. The inquiry is examining the missed opportunities to prevent the killing of Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; and the attempted murder of 10 others on 29 July last year. Sir Adrian Fulford, the chair, said on Tuesday the inquiry would examine the 'wholesale failure' of multiple institutions to prevent 'one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history'. Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January. Giving evidence at Liverpool town hall, the seven-year-old girl's mother said she wanted to highlight the courage shown by her daughter and the other children on that horrific day. The youngster, who can be identified only as C1, shielded other girls from the attacker as he rained down blows with a 17cm kitchen knife. Occasionally breaking to stop her tears, her mother said: 'She tells me with such clarity that a moment came where one of the girls was able to get up, she put the girl's hand on the handrail and told her to go – to get down the stairs – and she did.' The girl told her mother how she 'crouched over the top of her. I told her it would be OK', adding: 'It happened so fast, but I helped them, I'm glad I could help them, Mum.' Her mother told the inquiry: 'She recalls this with such purpose and determination, like it was her responsibility.' She said her daughter's courage had left her 'crushed and in complete awe', and that it was an 'uncomfortable and often unspoken truth' that the adults had initially left to call police. She said: 'When the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself. It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day.' Comforting her daughter through the trauma, she said, was like 'sucking out poison'. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The inquiry is expected to receive evidence from Rudakubana's brother, Dion, who has never spoken publicly; the chief constable of Merseyside police, Serena Kennedy; the home secretary, Yvette Cooper; and Amazon bosses. The father of a nine-year-old girl who was stabbed three times in the back described how his daughter suffered from flashbacks, had difficulty going to sleep, looked over her shoulder 'scanning for potential danger, and had to turn off particular songs when they played on the radio'. He said she had a fear of loud noises and felt uncomfortable being on a different floor to her parents at home. 'She has not fully recovered. She bears the scars, both physically and emotionally, of that terrible day,' he said. The mother of another girl, who escaped the attacker, said her 'strong, brave and beautiful' daughter now struggled to sleep at night, was afraid of open doors and sometimes could not go to school due to anxiety, instead hiding under the dining table. 'She asks: 'How will I ever be normal again?'' Another seven-year-old girl, known as C8, could not be left alone and only felt safe with immediate family or close friends, her mother said. The sight of older boys in school uniform had become a 'major trigger', she added, since they unintentionally saw a picture of Rudakubana wearing his school uniform on the front page of a national newspaper. The mother said: 'My daughter and all the people there that day have witnessed horrors that no one should every see and I don't think I will understand the impact on her until she is grown up. 'I am grateful beyond words that she survived. But what she went through, what she saw, and what she continues to carry has changed everything.'
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
The photo of Axel Rudakubana which Southport victims' families want banned
The families of the Southport victims have called on the mugshot of killer Axel Rudakubana to never be shown again. On Tuesday the public inquiry into the murders of three girls at a Southport dance class opened, with chairman Sir Adrian Fulford describing the attack as 'one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history'. Fulford, a former vice-president of the Court of Appeal, said 'ordinary language fails to reflect the enormity' of the knife attack on the Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July last year, when Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. The 18-year-old, who was given a life sentence in January with a minimum term of 52 years, also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes. One of the most chilling pictures from the trial was the mugshot of Rudakubana, which featured across newspapers and television following his jailing. But now, Fulford has called for the picture to be banned, saying that families found it 'significantly re-traumatising' whenever it is shown. Speaking at Liverpool town hall, Fulford called on the media to stop using the photo of Rudakubana taken after his arrest, having been 'routinely used for reporting on the attack itself and in stories regarding the perpetrator's conduct in prison'. Fulford said he had speaking with the surviving victims and their families, who find the picture 'a terrifying and singularly distressing image'. He told the inquiry: 'Indeed, seeing the face of the perpetrator, often without any warning, has the potential to be significantly re-traumatising. 'Every time this unsettling image is re-posted or re-broadcast, those responsible take on themselves the risk of causing real distress, thereby disrupting the process of rebuilding broken lives.:' Fulford urged the media to stop using the photo in question, arguing that it 'serves no credible journalistic purpose and only causes harm'. He added: 'I therefore urge all media outlets – traditional print and broadcast media, and those responsible for online reporting and on social media - to refrain from using it when reporting on our proceedings.' Mugshots are typically taken when someone is arrested and processed at a police station but are not routinely released to the public. They may be disclosed during active police investigations, such as when authorities seek public help to identify a suspect or locate a wanted individual, often shared via media or online appeals. However, in high-profile cases particularly, mugshots are usually released after someone is convicted if deemed in the public interest. Media outlets can request mugshots under specific circumstances, but police forces follow strict guidelines, and they are not automatically released. Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced the public inquiry in January to help understand what went wrong and prevent any repetition of similar incidents. Three separate referrals were made to the government's counter-terror programme Prevent about Rudakubana's behaviour in the years before the attack, as well as six separate calls to police. A review into the Prevent referrals published in February found there was sufficient risk posed by Rudakubana to keep his cases within Prevent active but that these were closed prematurely while too much focus was placed on a lack of distinct ideology. A key question for the inquiry is whether the attack could or should have been prevented, given what was known about the killer. Fulford set out the aims of the inquiry on Tuesday, saying his focus will be 'a thorough and forensic investigation of all the circumstances surrounding the attack and the events leading up to it'. Rudakubana's history and interactions with all the relevant agencies, how they shared information and responded to the risks that he posed will also be looked into. The second phase will take place next year, where Fulford will 'consider the wider issues of children and young people being drawn into extreme violence'. The widespread rioting and civil unrest following the murders is not being examined by the inquiry. Watch: Public inquiry begins into 'horrific' Southport murders
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Southport stabbing murders came after 'wholesale and general failure' to stop Axel Rudakubana in lead-up to attack, inquiry hears
The Southport murders were the result of a 'wholesale and general failure' to stop Axel Rudakubana in the lead-up to the attack, the chairman of the inquiry into the attacks has said. The brutal stabbings last July at a Taylor Swift-themed dance club led to the deaths of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Sir Adrian Fulford cited factors including Axel Rudakubana 's ability to access violent material and buy knives online at a young age, as well as his capacity to leave home unsupervised to commit the masscre. In his opening remarks, Sir Adrian said that far from being 'an unforeseeable catastrophic event, Rudakubana had a 'known predilection for knife crime ' and posed a 'very serious and significant risk of violent harm.' Over a period of more than two years, between January 2022 and July last year, he also managed to obtain an arsenal of weapons, including a bow and arrow, two types of machete, two large knives, a sledgehammer, materials to make Molotov cocktail explosives and other ingredients to make the deadly toxin ricin. The 18-year-old managed to order and buy a 20cm chef's knife using a private VPN online, but his fascination with knives was long held and had been flagged on multiple occasions. Sir Adrian cited the fact that Rudakubana had been expelled from Range High School in Formby but managed to return and attack another pupil with a hockey stick on December 11, 2019. Rudakubana was found with a knife and overheard saying he intended to kill another student during the same incident. He was referred to Prevent on three occasions, on December 5, 2019, February 1, 2021 and April 26, 2021 after being spotted researching school shootings, the Libyan military dictator Colonel Gaddafi and the London Bridge terror attack online. He was reported missing on March 17, 2022 and later stopped on a bus by police armed with a knife. Sir Adrian said it was 'of potential critical importance' that again Rudakubana said during this incident that he wanted to stab someone. The teenager killer also had a passion for violent online content, as well as an ever-growing archive of gruesome articles and books, including works on the Rwandan genocide and Nazi Germany. Additional texts included tomes on urban warfare tactics and others containing gory details about torture and cannibalism. Sir Adrian cited the fact that Rudakubana had accessed online books, research papers, information leaflets and instruction manuals, which included material about explosives, warfare and knives, including one called 'Assassination Using Poisons and Cold Steel,' and another named 'Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual' on his tablets and devices. That manual had been downloaded twice, once on August 30, 2021 and then again on September 4, 2021. A week before the attack, he armed himself with a knife and tried to return to Range High School again, on the day the school broke up for the summer holidays. Immediately before the attack, he watched a video of the violent stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Australia and five other individuals. The award-winning The Trial podcast series on the Southport murders is available now 'Furthermore, his ability, unhindered, to access gravely violent material on the internet, to order knives online at a young age, and then to leave home unsupervised to commit the present attack, speaks to a wholesale and general failure to intervene effectively, or indeed at all, to address the risks that he posed,' Sir Adrian said. Opening the hearings into last July's attacks, Sir Adrian Fulford said Axel Rudakubana perpetrated 'an almost unimaginable but nonetheless mercilessly calculated' killing spree when he went on the rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance club. Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died in the attack, which also left eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes seriously injured. They, and another 16 children who were at the club, also suffered significant psychological trauma, Sir Adrian said. Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time, was given a life sentence, with a minimum term of 52 years - one of the highest minimum terms on record - after pleading guilty to the murders and attempted murders, plus other offences, in January. Soon afterwards, Sir Adrian, a former vice-president of the Court of Appeal, was appointed by the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to carry out a 'forensic investigation' into the events on July 29. He said it was 'truly critical' that the inquiry gets answers for the families of Rudakubana's victims and makes recommendations to prevent anything similar happening in the future. The hearings will examine why several agencies, including the police, the courts, the NHS and social services, who all had contact with Rudakubana, failed to identify the risk he posed. It will also investigate whether the attack could or should have been prevented. Three separate referrals were made to Prevent, the Government's counter-terror programme, about Rudakubana's behaviour, between December 2019 and April 2021, as well as six separate calls to police. A review into the Prevent referrals, published in February, found he posed sufficient risk to keep his cases active but too much focus was placed on a lack of distinct ideology and they were closed prematurely. The inquiry will draw on evidence from interviews with witnesses and disclosure from 15 organisations, including MI5, Counter-Terrorism Policing, NHS England and Merseyside Police. Sir Adrian said 'for the benefit of the victims and their families' Rudakubana would not be named during the hearings, but instead be referred to as 'the perpetrator' or by his initials, AR. He also read out the names of the three girls who died and the 23 ciphers - the letters or numbers - that the inquiry is using for the ones who survived, but whose anonymity is protected. He has also urged the media not to use the mugshot of Rudakubana, issued by Merseyside police, in their reporting of the inquiry because of the 'distress' it caused to the young survivors. He said he had spoken to relatives of the girls present at the dance class, who had told him they found repeated use of it to be 'terrifying.' 'Seeing the face of the perpetrator, often without any warning, has the potential to be significantly retraumatising,' Sir Adrian said. He added that the continued use of the mugshot also risked 'disrupting the process of rebuilding broken lives.' As part of a moving tribute, those seated in the inquiry chamber, at Liverpool Town Hall, where the hearings are being held, were also asked to stand for a minute's silence to remember Alice, Elsie and Bebe. 'The perpetrator is responsible for one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history,' Sir Adrian said. 'However hard we try, ordinary language simply fails to reflect the enormity of what he did on 29 July last year. 'None of the most powerful adjectives even begin to suffice. There are no words adequately to describe what occurred and I'm not going to try and then fail to find them. 'Instead, I simply observe that his crimes impose the heaviest of burdens on our society to investigate speedily but comprehensively how it was possible for AR to have caused such devastation; to analyse the decisions that were or were not taken by multiple individuals and organisations given his deteriorating and deeply troubling behaviour; to identify without fear or favour all of the relevant failings; and to make comprehensive, sensible and achievable recommendations to ensure we have the best chance of intervening with and preventing others who may be drawn to treating their fellow human beings in such a cruel and inhuman way.' Sir Adrian said the first phase of the inquiry, which is expected to last until the end of the year, will focus on Rudakubana, his dealings with the relevant agencies and the sharing of information between them. It will also look into how well the risk he posed was addressed, decisions which were made or not made 'along with any missed opportunities' to stop him. Sir Adrian said that such factors, when taken together, suggested that the attack was far from being 'an unforeseeable catastrophic event,' and instead, by July last year, Rudakubana had a 'known predilection for knife crime' and posed a 'very serious and significant risk of violent harm.' He said the inquiry would need to reflect on whether 'the multi-agency handling' of risk, including the operation of the Prevent programme, was sufficient and determine whether there should be better, more effective systems in place to identify, monitor and control those contemplating such serious crimes. Sir Adrian added: 'We need to understand what went wrong and thereafter identify and implement the most effective measures to ensure, to the extent that we are able, that there is no repetition. 'As a society we are not helpless when confronted with individuals who are known to be contemplating acts of such depravity and although no solution will be foolproof, we can identify all of the robust steps which should be taken to protect ourselves, and particularly the most vulnerable, from horrors of this kind. 'This must be undertaken at speed, to provide answers for the victims and their families and to identify all of the changes that urgently need to be made.' Sir Adrian pointed out that the Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously said that Southport 'must be a line in the sand' and that 'nothing would be off the table' for the inquiry to investigate. The chairman said he was determined that the hearings would 'not turn into an exercise of papering over the cracks' but would act as a 'real engine for change.' He also said that the present Crime and Policing Bill, which has passed its second reading in the House of Commons, includes the provision of Youth Diversion Orders, which are aimed at anyone aged under 22 that is involved in terrorist offending, in order to 'divert them from the wider criminal justice system', including prosecution. But he pointed out that Rudakubana's crimes were not terror-related and the inquiry will, therefore, look closely at whether the State should be able to impose restrictions on individuals if there is strong evidence that they intend to commit serious violent crimes per se. Measures such as imposing curfews, tags, or placing restrictions on their movement or ability to use the internet and social media, or to require psychological intervention until the risk is deemed to have been reduced. Sir Adrian said he expected all organisations and witnesses taking part in the hearings to be candid and 'frank' and to 'volunteer information about errors' and things which went wrong. He said he expected his first report on the first phase of the inquiry to be completed by early next year at the latest. Rachael Wong, director at law firm Bond Turner, representing the three bereaved families, said they would be doing all they could to help Sir Adrian get to the 'truth.' 'We know that nothing the inquiry reveals or subsequently recommends will change the unimaginable loss felt by the families of Elsie, Alice and Bebe, but we all now have a responsibility to ensure that something like this never happens again,' she said. 'We will be doing all we can to assist the chair through the inquiry and uncover the truth. 'It is only through intense public scrutiny that real change can be effected.' Impact statements from parents of four child survivors will be read to the inquiry tomorrow. The hearings will then be adjourned until September, when more statements from the remaining relatives of victims and survivors will continue. The second phase will look at the more wider 'troubling trend' of children being drawn into extreme violence and what can be done to reverse this, the chairman added. The widespread rioting and civil unrest following the murders is not being examined by the inquiry.
