Suspect in fatal Southport stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed event ID’d as Axel Rudakubana
The UK teen accused of fatally stabbing three little girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was identified for the first time Thursday as Axel Rudakubana.
The 17-year-old, who was born in Wales to Rwandan parents, smiled during an initial appearance Thursday in Liverpool Magistrates’ Court.
He is charged with the murders of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and?Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, as well as 10 counts of attempted murder for stabbing eight other children along with two adults who tried to help them at the kids’ event Monday in Southport.
Judge Andrew Menary said that despite not being an adult, the boy can be named because he will turn 18 next week.
He also cited riots across the UK stemming from another person wrongly being identified as the suspect, stoking anger at immigrants even though the real suspect is was born in the UK.
“Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum,” Menary said at a second hearing in Liverpool Crown Court.
Police have not disclosed a motive for the crime, but the charges revealed that the alleged murder weapon was a kitchen knife with a curved blade.
Rudakubana, wearing a gray tracksuit, smiled briefly at reporters during an initial appearance in Liverpool Magistrates’ Court. At his subsequent appearance in Crown Court, he pulled his sweatshirt up to his hair to cover his face. He did not speak.
Neither the teen’s parents nor family members of victims were in court.
He is accused of taking a taxi early Monday to Hart Space, a dance school in the seaside town of Southport, where he allegedly attacked children and other attendees at a Taylor Swift-theme dance and yoga workshop.
Two little girls died at the scene, while a third was pronounced dead at the hospital on Tuesday.
The two injured adults — both of whom remain in the hospital — were Leanne Lucas, 35, who was leading the dance class, and John Hayes, who worked next door and ran to protect the kids after hearing screams.
Newly released surveillance footage showed the suspect wandering a residential area about 15 minutes from the dance studio wearing a face mask and a green hoodie shortly before the mass stabbing.
Rudakubana is believed to have acted alone, and police have said the attack is not thought to have been terror-related.
A woman who knew the teen’s family when they lived in Cardiff described Rudakubana’s parents as a “lovely young couple,” the BBC noted.
The bloodbath sparked riots, with more than 20 police officers wounded near the scene of the stabbing when far-right protesters fueled by online speculation staged a rally near a mosque.
The violent crowd torched a police van and several cars and threw rocks and bottles at officers in a demonstration targeting Muslims and immigrants — despite police repeating that a teen identified online was not the suspect.
“I want to make it clear that I fully condemn any attack on our emergency services, these are the same services that responded to the tragic attack yesterday,” Southport MP Patrick Hurley said of the incident.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the protests as “thuggery” and said the crowd interrupted a peaceful vigil to mourn the dead and support the surviving victims.
The unthinkable attack came as Taylor Swift, 34, capped off the triumphant German leg of her globe-trotting Eras Tour.
“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously and I’m just completely in shock,” the pop star wrote in a message posted to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday.
“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she added. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to their families.”
A JustGiving page started by fans of the “Love Story” songstress raised over $425,000 for the victims and their families within just a few days of the stabbing.
With Post wires
