A UK teenager who committed the “harrowing” killings two Southport girls was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison

Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the incident as one of the most horrific events in British history, and a British teenager who killed three young girls at a dance event with a Taylor Swift theme was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison on Thursday.

Last July, in the northern English town of Southport, 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana confessed to killing the girls and stabbing ten others. The tragedy stunned Britain and sparked days of riots across the country.

Rudakubana was preoccupied with violence and genocide, according to prosecutor Deanna Heer, who told Liverpool Crown Court that two of his victims had horrific injuries that were “difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.”

Rudakubana should serve at least 52 years, according to Judge Julian Goose. Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the crime, so he could not receive a complete life sentence, he added, but it was doubtful that he would ever be freed.

Rudakubana was taken from the dock twice during Thursday’s hearing after yelling that he wasn’t feeling well. He declined to appear in court again to receive his punishment.

Horrifying video footage of screaming females running out of the building was displayed to the court. The public gallery of the court gasped and sobbed as one of the bleeding girls fainted outside.

“He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey,” 36-year-old yoga instructor Leanne Lucas, who also suffered five stab wounds, told the court.

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were all slain. 26 kids attended the summer vacation event, including them.

“It looked like he tried to decapitate one of them,” Heer added, adding that two were injured with at least 85 and 122 sharp force injuries.

Rudakubana said to police after being taken into custody, “I’m glad those kids are dead, it makes me happy.”

According to Heer, pictures and records discovered on a computer at his house revealed a protracted fixation with murder, violence, and genocide.

Additionally, Rudakubana acknowledged having an al Qaeda instruction manual and manufacturing ricin, a lethal poison that the court stated the youngster would have probably utilized.

Murders are not regarded as terrorists.

Heer stated that as Rudakubana was not motivated by any specific political or religious philosophy, the killings were not regarded as acts of terrorism. 

On his gadgets, there was content that made fun of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

“It is not possible to identify any particular terrorist cause,” Heer stated. “Rather, the evidence suggests that the defendant’s purpose was the commission of mass murder as an end in itself.”

Stan Reiz, Rudakubana’s attorney, said that despite his autism diagnosis, Rudakubana had no mental illness that could account for his behavior and that he had little to give as a remedy for “such wickedness.”

According to Heer, Rudakubana called a children’s hotline in 2019 and inquired, “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?”

He was nabbed with a knife in his bag after returning and using a hockey stick to assault a student, and he was removed from school shortly after after confessing to taking a weapon to class ten times, according to Heer.

After investigating school shootings, posting pictures of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Instagram, and researching an attack in London, Rudakubana was sent to a counter-radicalization program called Prevent, but nothing was done about it.

Because there were serious issues, the government initiated a public investigation.

“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve,” Starmer stated.