UK child stabbing spree killer gets life in custody

LIVERPOOL: A UK judge on Thursday sentenced a self-confessed child killer to life in custody for murdering three young girls in a frenzied stabbing spree at their summer dance class.

“I consider it likely he will never be released,” judge Julian Goose said, adding that Axel Rudakubana, 18, must serve a minimum of 52 years in detention for his “extreme violence”.

“The harm Rudakubana has caused to each family, each child and to the community has been profound and permanent,” the judge told Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England.

Rudakubana had admitted three charges of killing the three girls who died in the attack in Southport -- Bebe King, aged six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.

He also confessed to the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults, as well as possessing a knife when he burst into a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July last year. And he pleaded guilty to producing a biological toxin -- ricin -- and possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual.

The judge said the violent attack, which Rudakubana unleashed just nine days before his 18th birthday, took just 15 minutes. “Had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child -- all 26 of them,” the judge said.

“He was prevented from murdering more only by the escape of other children.” After some of the injured girls escaped, Rudakubana “returned to continue his sustained and brutal violence against two of the youngest of those children, stabbing them multiple times,” the judge added.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told families of three girls murdered in a stabbing spree last year that “we stand with you in your grief” after the killer was jailed for life on Thursday.

Starmer added that Axel Rudakubana had been responsible for “one of the most harrowing moments in our country´s history” for the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England last July. “The thoughts of the entire nation are with the families and everyone affected by the unimaginable horrors that unfolded in Southport. No words will ever be able to capture the depth of their pain,” Starmer said in a statement.

“I want to say directly to the survivors, families and community of Southport -- you are not alone. We stand with you in your grief.” He called Rudakubana a “vile offender” who “will likely never be released”. “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,” he added.