2024 Southport stabbing
2024 Southport stabbing | |
---|---|
Location | Hart Street, Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 53°38′32.5″N 2°59′7.3″W / 53.642361°N 2.985361°W |
Date | 29 July 2024 c. 11:47 (BST (UTC+1)) |
Target | Children at a dance workshop |
Attack type | Mass stabbing |
Weapon | Kitchen knife |
Deaths | 3 |
Injured | 10 |
Perpetrator | Axel Rudakubana |
Motive | Unknown |
Coroner | Julie Goulding |
Convictions |
|
On 29 July 2024, a mass stabbing targeting children occurred at a dance studio in Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom. Seventeen-year-old Axel Rudakubana killed three children and injured ten others – eight of whom were children. The attack took place at a Taylor Swift–themed yoga and dance workshop attended by 25 children at the Hart Space, a community studio in the Meols Cop area of Southport. Two girls died at the scene, six injured children and two adults were taken to hospital in a critical condition, and a third girl died the following day.
The day after the attack, far-right protesters clashed with police in Southport and damaged a mosque after misinformation about the attacker's identity – which had not yet been publicly released – was spread online. Over the next few days, protests and riots spread nationwide.
Rudakubana was arrested at the scene and charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and possession of a bladed article. He was later separately charged under the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and Terrorism Act 2000 in relation to the possession of ricin and a military study of an Al-Qaeda training manual. He pleaded guilty to all 16 charges on 20 January 2025, when his trial was due to begin, having initially entered a not-guilty plea. No motive for the stabbings was discovered.
After Rudakubana's guilty pleas, it emerged that he had a history of violent and concerning behaviour and had been referred to the anti-extremism programme Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021, but was not accepted into the scheme as no terrorist ideology was identified. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an overhaul to terrorism laws to include non-ideological acts of violence, and appointed Sir David Anderson KC to lead a review of the Prevent programme.
Background
The Hart Space, where the attack occurred, was a community studio venue on Hart Street in Meols Cop, Southport, about a mile east of the town centre. It hosted yoga, dance, pregnancy, and baby and toddler classes.[1][2] It was on the first floor of a building which it shared with an office on the ground floor.[3][4][5]
The workshop was organised by yoga teacher Leanne Lucas.[6] It was advertised as a yoga, dance, and bracelet making workshop themed around the music of Taylor Swift.[7] The workshop was aimed at children in Year 2 to Year 6 (ages 6–11), and was being held in the first whole week of the summer holidays, scheduled for 29 July between 10:00 and 12:00.[7] The event was fully booked, with 25 children attending.[8]
Attack
At around 11:45 BST, Axel Rudakubana arrived at Hart Street by taxi and walked to the Hart Space.[8][9] A witness reported that he wore a black hooded top and a COVID-style face mask.[10] He walked into the studio through the front door, which was unlocked for fire safety reasons. Armed with a kitchen knife with a curved 20-centimetre (8 in) blade, he began his attack, randomly stabbing children even as they tried to flee.[11][12][13] The organisers tried to shield children from the attacker.[14] Lucas, who was critically injured in the attack, ushered some children out of the venue via a fire exit and the other organiser locked others in a toilet to hide them.[14] Jonathan Hayes, who was working in an office in the same building, ran into the studio after hearing screams and was stabbed in the leg when he attempted to disarm the attacker.[10]
At 11:47, Merseyside Police received the first emergency call, and emergency services were dispatched.[8] North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) received their first call a minute later.[11] Police officers encountered Rudakubana standing over the body of a victim, still holding the knife.[13] After ordering him to drop the knife, Rudakubana cooperated and was subsequently arrested.[13] Members of the public helped those who had escaped from the building. One described how he had stopped to help an injured child before entering the building and seeing the attacker with a knife at the top of a staircase. After two officers had subdued the attacker, the man carried an injured girl to an ambulance.[15] A man who lived in a neighbouring property was interviewed by ITV and described how he had taken several children, one of them injured, into his house.[16]
Emergency services quickly declared a major incident as armed response vehicles, thirteen ambulances, the fire service, and three air ambulances – one each from North West Air Ambulance, Midlands Air Ambulance, and Great North Air Ambulance[17][18][19] – were dispatched to the scene.[20] Specialist hazardous area response and medical emergency response incident units also responded.[21][17] Merseyside Police imposed an Emergency Restriction of Flying to stop aircraft – including helicopters and drones – from flying without permission.[22]
Victims
Six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe died at the scene,[23] and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar died in hospital the following day.[24] Nine children and two adults were treated for injuries by NWAS.[25][6][26] Six of the nine children and both adults – Lucas and Hayes – were in a critical condition following the stabbings.[23][6][26][4]
Casualties were taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, which declared a major incident, as well as Aintree University Hospital, Southport and Formby District General Hospital, Ormskirk District General Hospital, and Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.[20] The three girls who were killed in the attack were named on 30 July.[27]
The last injured child to be discharged from hospital went home on 8 August, ten days after the stabbing.[28] Lucas was readmitted to hospital due to breathing issues and was expected to undergo lung surgery.[29][30]
Perpetrator
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana (born 7 August 2006)[31] was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.[32][33] Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, and is a British citizen.[34] His parents are originally from Rwanda. The family moved to the Southport area in 2013; at the time of the attack, they lived in Banks, a large village on the north-eastern outskirts of Southport.[35][36] Neighbours have described him as "quiet".[37] He has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, and had reportedly been "unwilling to leave the house and communicate with family for a period of time".[38] According to a senior official interviewed by The Guardian, Rudakubana watched graphic videos of murders and was obsessed with genocide, including the Rwandan genocide, Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan.[39]
In 2018, when he was aged 11, he was featured in a BBC Children in Need promotional video dressed as the Tenth Doctor.[40][41] After Rudakubana's identity was released, the BBC removed the Children in Need advert featuring him from its platforms.[40][42] The company that cast him also deleted all references to him from their social media.[40] He was part of a musical theatre group.[43]
Rudakubana attended Range High School in Formby.[44] He was excluded in October 2019 over incidents including a call he made to Childline in which he said he would take a knife into school over alleged racial bullying; the NSPCC reported this to authorities.[45] In December 2019, he returned to the school and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, breaking their wrist.[45] He later attended The Acorns School in Ormskirk, a specialist education centre.[45] He was enrolled for sixth form at Presfield High School & Specialist College in Churchtown, mostly via home visits by staff, who were sometimes accompanied by the police.[45] A week before the Southport attack, on 22 July 2024, Rudakubana booked a taxi to go to Range High School minutes before the school broke up for the summer holidays. He returned to his house after a discussion with his father.[46]
On 31 July 2024, Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and one count of possession of a bladed article. As a minor at the time of the attack, his identity was protected;[47][48] however reporting restrictions were lifted on 1 August by Liverpool Crown Court, citing concerns over the lack of confirmed identity fuelling misinformation. The recorder overturning the restrictions stated that continuing to prevent reporting of Rudakubana's name risked more unrest when he turned 18 on 7 August and his identity would have become publicly available.[49][50]
Merseyside Police did not identify a motive at the time, and on the day of the attack they said that they were not treating the incident as terror-related.[51] In October 2024, Rudakubana was charged under the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and Terrorism Act 2000 for possession and production of ricin and a PDF copy of a military study of an al-Qaeda training manual.[52][53] Rudakubana was charged with production of a biological toxin in violation of Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974.[52] The PDF file found by Merseyside Police in Rudakubana's computer was titled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants – the al-Qaida Training Manual.[54] Rudakubana downloaded the document in 2021, and also held material relating to other violent themes such as the Mau Mau rebellion, "clan cleansing" in Somalia, and punishments against slaves.[55] He bought apparatus to make the ricin from Amazon.com in 2022, and bought his knives on 13 July 2024 from the same website, using software to hide his identity.[55] Immediately before leaving his house, Rudakubana watched a video of a 2024 stabbing of a bishop in Australia.[55]
In December 2024, Rudakubana's not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf; during the video link with Liverpool Crown Court, he was mute of malice. A four-week trial was scheduled for January 2025.[56][57] As his trial was due to begin, on 20 January 2025, he pleaded guilty to all sixteen charges against him: three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, one count of possession of a knife, one count of ricin production, and one terror-related charge.[57][58] A sentencing date was set for 23 January 2025; Justice Goose said that a life sentence was inevitable.[57]
Speaking outside court after Rudakubana had pleaded guilty, Ursula Doyle of the Crown Prosecution Service called the attack a "meticulously planned rampage" that had left an enduring mark on the local community and the nation for "its savagery and senselessness". She said that Rudakubana had been obsessed with violence and had shown no sign of remorse.[59]
After Rudakubana's guilty plea, the media were permitted to publish details of his background. He had been referred on three occasions to the Prevent scheme due to his interest in violence but, although his behaviour was considered to be of concern, he was not accepted onto the programme as there was no evidence of terrorist ideology. After his arrest, an emergency review concluded that Prevent had followed the correct procedures at the time.[60] It also emerged that, in the five years preceding the attack, the police, the youth justice system, social care authorities and mental health services had been involved with him.[61]
Aftermath
Official responses
Prior to guilty plea
Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the incident as horrendous and shocking, and thanked emergency services for their swift response.[62] Speaking in the House of Commons, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stated that she was concerned by the incident and described the emergency services' response as courageous.[63] Patrick Hurley, the Labour MP for Southport, stated that he was deeply concerned and hoped for the best possible outcomes to the casualties as well as praising local organisations that "stepped up to the plate" and urging against any online speculation over the event.[64][65] Cooper additionally visited Southport the following morning to lay flowers and meet officials and community leaders.[66] Starmer also visited the same day and laid flowers at the scene. He was heckled by some members of the public.[67] On 2 August, 10 Downing Street was illuminated pink "as a mark of respect and solidarity".[68]
Condolences were sent by King Charles III and Queen Camilla, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales.[69][70] The President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa,[71] Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, and the Regional Government of Madeira, sent condolences as Aguiar's parents had emigrated from Madeira to the UK.[72]
King Charles visited Southport on 20 August, meeting with survivors of the attack and their families, local politicians, and emergency workers who responded to the incident. He also signed the book of condolence.[73] The following day he held a private meeting at Clarence House in London with the bereaved families.[74]
On 10 October 2024 the town was visited by William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales, in the princess's first official visit since completing her treatment for cancer.[75]
Post-guilty plea responses and public inquiry
After Rudakubana's guilty plea on 20 January 2025, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a public inquiry, stating that the victims' families "needed answers about what had happened leading up to the attack".[76] This was followed by Prime Minister Kier Starmer's promise to overhaul terrorism laws to reflect the type of non-ideological killings characterised by individuals like Rudakubana, stressing the threat from “acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.[77]
Significant attention was drawn to Prevent for failing to accept referrals of Rudakubana on the basis of him lacking a terrorist ideology. Although an emergency review found that Prevent had followed correct procedures on each referral, Cooper concluded “that too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology” in the programme. Cooper announced that there would be a review on the threshold at which Prevent intervenes, with senior lawyer David Anderson being assigned by Starmer as the Independent Prevent Commissioner to perform the review.[60][77][78]
Memorials and fundraisers
A vigil was held outside the Atkinson in Eastbank Square on the evening of 30 July, with thousands of people in attendance.[79] Flowers and handwritten notes were left there and near the scene of the attack.[80]
Taylor Swift responded: "The horror of yesterday's attack in Southport is washing over me continuously and I'm just completely in shock [...] 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."[81][82] Swift later met with families of the victims, welcoming them to the backstage of her Eras Tour concerts at the Wembley Stadium, London.[83]
Within a day of the incident, Swift's fans launched a 'Swifties for Southport' JustGiving page and raised over £300,000 for the Alder Hey Children's Charity.[84] Fundraising pages were setup to support the families of the victims, which raised a combined total of over £200,000.[85]
A service was held for Aguiar on 6 August at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Southport.[86] Hundreds of people lined the streets of Southport for her funeral on 11 August.[87] King's funeral was held privately in Southport on 17 August,[88] and Stancombe's funeral took place in Birkdale on 23 August.[89]
Misinformation and riots
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, misinformation about the identity of the attacker began to spread widely on social media.[90] Claims that the suspect was a Muslim migrant or asylum seeker were rapidly spread by right-wing accounts.[91] The claims were propagated by Channel3Now, a news aggregation website with a past history of spreading misinformation.[92][93]
On the evening of 30 July, the same evening as a vigil was held for the victims, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Southport Mosque on St Luke's Road, less than 400 metres (0.25 mi) from the scene of the attack. The protest quickly turned violent and people began attacking the mosque with bricks, bottles, and rocks,[94] set a police vehicle on fire, and looted a corner shop.[95] Merseyside Police believed the group to be supporters of the English Defence League,[96] although the EDL has ceased to exist in a formal sense since 2013.[97] Merseyside Police reported that 39 officers were injured; 27 were hospitalised and 8 sustained serious injuries.[98]
The riot was widely condemned. Starmer said in a post on X that the group had "hijacked the vigil for the victims with violence and thuggery" and "insulted the community as it grieves", and that those involved would "feel the full force of the law". Hurley said on BBC Radio 4's Today that the rioters were not local residents, but were "thugs who'd got the train in".[99] Dozens of local residents gathered on the morning of 31 July to clean up the destruction and repair damage.[100] Over the next few days, far-right riots spread to towns and cities across England, and to Belfast in Northern Ireland, eventually leading to over 1,000 arrests.[101][102]
Inquest
The inquest into the three deaths was opened at Bootle Town Hall on 7 August by senior coroner Julie Goulding. The inquest was adjourned pending the outcome of the judicial process.[103]
See also
- List of mass stabbing incidents (2020–present)
- 2024 Hainault sword attack – mass stabbing in London in which a 14-year-old boy was killed
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- ^ "In pictures: Locals leave flowers and handwritten notes for victims". BBC News. 30 July 2024. Archived from the original on 31 July 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
[L]ocals have been leaving flowers and handwritten notes near the scene of the attack.
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- ^ Moorman, Taijuan; Ushe, Naledi; Robinson, KiMi (30 July 2024). "Taylor Swift 'at a complete loss' after UK mass stabbing leaves 3 children dead". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 10 August 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
- ^ Willman, Chris (19 August 2024). "Taylor Swift Meets With Families of Girls Caught Up in Southport Stabbing Attack". Variety. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
- ^ Dahir, Ikran (31 July 2024). "Taylor Swift fans behind £300k crowdfunder say Southport rioters should 'hang their heads in shame'". Yahoo News. Archived from the original on 6 August 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ Haslam, Ben (20 August 2024). "Funeral date set for 'chatty and unforgettable' Elsie Stancombe". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
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- ^ "Funeral held for Southport victim Bebe King". BBC News. 17 August 2024. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
- ^ "Southport: Mourners told Elsie brought 'light, love and joy' to life". BBC News. 23 August 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
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- ^ "New rioting across UK cities as arrests multiply". BBC. 6 August 2024.
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External links
- "Statement on major incident in Southport" (Merseyside Police)
- 2024 in England
- 2020s in Merseyside
- 21st-century mass murder in England
- July 2024 events in the United Kingdom
- Attacks in the United Kingdom in 2024
- Child murder in England
- Deaths by stabbing in England
- Mass stabbings in the United Kingdom
- Southport
- Stabbing attacks in 2024
- Stabbing attacks in England
- 2024 United Kingdom riots
- July 2024 crimes in Europe