UK teen pleads guilty to girls’ murder that triggered riots

LIVERPOOL: A teenager on Monday pleaded guilty to the “unspeakable” killing of three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK´s most violent riots in a decade.

On what was set to be the opening day of his trial, Axel Rudakubana, 18, admitted murdering the three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England. The July stabbings sent shockwaves across the UK, triggering unrest and riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities, including in Southport and Liverpool. Authorities blamed far-right agitators for fuelling the violence, including by sharing misinformation claiming the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. In fact, Rudakubana was born in Cardiff in Wales to parents of Rwandan origin, and lived in Banks, a village northeast of Southport.