Last July, British teenager Axel Rudakubana left home with the intention to kill. He targeted a group of young girls singing and making friendship bracelets at a school holiday activity in Southport, England. Prosecutors stated that he had researched atrocities committed by others and was “determined to emulate them.”
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02-13, 2025About 40 minutes before leaving home, he searched on social media for a video of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney, which had occurred a few months earlier. In April of last year, three people were attacked at the Assyrian Orthodox Christ The Good Shepherd Church in western Sydney, which police classified as a "terrorist act."
On Thursday, at Liverpool Crown Court, the 18-year-old was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison for the murders of 6-year-old Bibi-King, 7-year-old Elsie-Dot Stankom, and 9-year-old Alice-Da Silva Aguiar, as well as the attempted murder of 10 others. Presented CCTV and police bodycam footage showed the young attacker entering the room where the children were gathered. Less than 30 seconds later, screams were heard from outside.
Witnesses in the room described seeing the attacker wielding a large kitchen knife, charging into the crowd. Many children sustained injuries to their backs as they tried to flee. Prosecutor Deanna Hill stated that the injuries to two of the victims were so horrific that "it's hard to explain it in any other way than sadistic behavior." After being arrested, Rudakubana told police, "It's good that those children are dead, I'm happy, I'm so happy."
In the attack, eight girls between the ages of 7 and 13 were injured, along with activity leader Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes, a staff member from a neighboring shop, who were injured while intervening. In her victim impact statement to the court, Lucas asked, "How am I supposed to carry on with my life when I survived and the children didn't?" Elsie-Dot Stankom’s mother called Rudakubana a “coward,” while Alice-Da Silva Aguiar’s parents described their lives as “playing on a loop like a five-dimensional horror movie.”
A surviving teenage girl read her victim impact statement in court, telling the attacker, "What I remember most is your eyes, you didn't look human, you looked possessed." She also stated, "As you sit alone in your cell, I will make sure me and my sister, and our family, do our best to move forward." At Thursday's sentencing hearing, Judge Julian Goose told the court, "What he did on July 29 last year caused such shock and revulsion throughout the nation, it must be seen as an extremely serious crime, and the harm caused by his culpability and intent is of the highest order." "It is likely he will never be released, and he will remain in prison for the rest of his life."
Rudakubana was only 17 years old at the time of the killings, and under British law, a longer sentence could not be imposed due to his young age. During the presentation of evidence, he was removed from the courtroom for refusing to stop shouting in the dock. He repeatedly claimed he was unwell and needed medical attention. Rudakubana also admitted to making the biological toxin ricin and possessing an al-Qaeda training manual. The attack, along with online speculation about the suspect's identity and motives, sparked nationwide unrest in the following days. The teenager was known to the police prior to the July attack and had a history of violence.
As the court case concludes, questions are being raised about why this horrific attack was not prevented. The court heard that Rudakubana had appeared in a BBC advertisement for a project to help vulnerable children when he was 11 years old, playing a character from Doctor Who. Rudakubana came from an evangelical Christian family and was quiet as a child, but became increasingly withdrawn and rarely left the house as a teenager. However, the court heard that beneath his shy exterior was a killer waiting to strike, obsessed with violence and death. He was born in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, to Rwandan immigrants and moved to Banks, Lancashire, England in 2013.
The court heard that from the age of 13, he had been referred to the UK’s counter-terrorism “Prevent” program three times due to his obsession with violence. Around 2019, the teenager was expelled from school for carrying knives on at least 10 occasions. He claimed he was being bullied at the time. Two months later, he returned to high school with a hockey stick and used it to attack a student. In the following years, police visited his home five times over concerns about his behavior. He had also been in contact with the courts, social services, and mental health programs. Prosecutor Hill told the court that the attack on the school holiday activity may not have been his first attempt to cause mass harm.
Rudakubana had planned to return to his previous school a week before the Southport attack, but was stopped by his father, who begged a taxi driver not to take him. He booked the taxi under the name Simon, which was also the alias he used a week later to book a taxi to the dance class where he carried out the killings. British media who have spoken to him say he was fascinated by autocratic figures such as Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler, and had a “kill list” of people he wanted to attack.
The court heard that a large amount of imagery related to different wars and international conflicts, including Gaza, Ukraine, and Iraq, as well as violent images of dead bodies, torture victims, beheadings, and rapes, were found on Rudakubana's devices. “This is a very wide range of material that gives an insight into the defendant’s mindset at the time,” Ms. Hill told the court. “He had a long-standing obsession with violence, killing, and genocide.” British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has previously criticized government agencies for failing to identify the danger Rudakubana posed to others and has announced a public inquiry to determine "the truth and where change is needed."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated that modifying the country's counter-terrorism laws is the first step in stopping potential killers like Rudakubana. He believes that amending the laws will ensure that lone wolf killers with "extreme personal violence" are charged with terrorism offenses, even if they do not have a coherent ideology. Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, whose job is to assess whether changes to the country’s counter-terrorism laws are feasible, said, “The horrific attack in Southport appears to have been carried out by someone who was obsessed with violence, but it was not ideologically driven, so he cannot be prosecuted as a terrorist,” Mr. Hall said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Prime Minister's suggestion is that it may be necessary to change the definition of terrorism because there are too many cases of this nature that are slipping through the net if they are not regarded as terrorism. “UK law has a fairly broad definition of terrorism which can include lone actors, but they have to be seeking to advance a cause, and that cause can be religious, political, racial or ideological. When the motivation of the individual is an obsession with violence or personal grievance, they don’t meet that definition, even though their actions cause fear and terror in the community,” Mr. Hall said, adding that there are three main reasons to consider widening the legislation to include these cases, although they are not necessarily sufficient.
“Some people think that unless you call it terrorism, it’s not seen as serious enough,” Mr. Hall said. “The second is resources, the UK has a very well respected and well-resourced counter-terrorism system, so there may be a desire that if you call it terrorism, you might be able to call on some resources that wouldn’t otherwise be available.” “The third is functional, if something is terrorism, then there are extra duties, so you can commit an offense by encouraging terrorism, preparing for terrorism or possessing a terrorism manual, which means police have more opportunities to arrest people before they launch attacks.”
