London: An 18-year-old knife attacker who had pleaded guilty to killing three schoolgirls at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop in Southport, north-west England last July, was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years before being considered for parole.
Axel Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the fatal stabbings, also admitted attempting to murder eight other children, aged between seven and 13, along with yoga instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes at the Hart Space in Southport.
Justice Julian Goose, presiding over the sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, said if Rudakubana had been 18 at the time of the attack he would have received a whole-life term – which would have meant no possibility of release at all.
“He will serve almost the whole of his life in custody. I consider it likely he will never be released and he will be in custody for all of his life,” said Justice Goose.
Sentencing Rudakubana in his absence after he had to be removed from the courtroom for disrupting court proceedings by shouting earlier on Thursday, the judge noted that he was guilty of the most “extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime”.
“He wanted to carry out the murder of happy, innocent young girls. Over about 15 minutes he tried to kill three of them and attempted to kill eight more. It was extreme violence it is difficult to comprehend why it was done. I’m sure Rudakubana had a settled and determined intention to kill and would have killed all 26 children,” he said.
The judge added: “The prosecution has made it clear this does not meet the definition of an act of terrorism within the meaning of the legislation, as there is no evidence the purpose was to advance a particular political or ideological cause.
“I must accept that conclusion. However, his culpability is equivalent in its seriousness to terrorist murders, whatever his purpose. What he did on July 29 last year has caused such shock and revulsion to the whole nation it must be viewed as the most extreme level of crime.”
Rudakubana, born in the Welsh capital of Cardiff to a family of Rwandan heritage based in Lancashire in north-west England, had earlier also admitted to the production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of a terrorist document – a PDF file titled ‘Military Studies in the Jihad against Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual’.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had not classified the attack as terrorism. Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said there was no evidence during their investigations that Rudakubana ascribed to any political or religious ideology and was not fighting for a cause, so the "cowardly and vicious attack" was not treated as terrorism.
"This is a young man with an unhealthy obsession with violence. His only purpose was to kill the youngest and most vulnerable and spread the greatest level of fear and outrage, which he succeeded in doing," she said, following Thursday's sentencing.
The court also heard harrowing testimonies from those impacted by the attack last year, including the families of the three young girls killed at the dance studio – Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7.
