The 18-year-old accused of killing three girls at a Southport dance class dramatically admitted the attack just before his trial began as he spoke in court for the first time.

Axel Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court from today charged with 16 offences, including three counts of murder.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29, 2024.

Before today, Rudakubana had not spoken in court and not guilty pleas had been entered on his behalf when he failed to respond after the charges were put to him. 

But this morning, the defendant – aged 17 at the time of the attack – admitted the girls’ murders as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, who can’t be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

He also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife on the day of the attack, production of a biological toxin – ricin – on or before July 29, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

The terrorism offence Rudakubana admitted relates to a PDF file entitled ‘Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual’, which he is said to have possessed between August 29, 2021 and July 30 last year.

The ricin, a deadly poison, and the document were found during searches of a home on Old School Close he shared with his parents, who are originally from Rwanda.

The attack in Southport has not been declared a terrorist incident despite the discovery of the document, Merseyside Police said last year.

Rudakubana’s shock change of plea meant the loved ones of his young victims were not present in court to hear him admit his guilt – with his pleas coming as a surprise to the judge, lawyers and press crammed into the packed courtroom this morning.

The hearing, expected to deal with legal matters at the start of a four-week trial opening tomorrow, instead lasted little more than 15 minutes – and there had been no inkling to anyone the defendant would change his plea.

Rudakubana appeared in court in a grey prison tracksuit and blue facemask.

After trial judge Mr Justice Goose came into court at 11.27am this morning, Mr Reiz, defending Rudakubana, asked permission to approach the defendant in the dock, in what was an unusual move.

Rudakubana had not stood up when asked to by the court clerk and judge after entering court – and did not reply when he was asked to confirm his name. 

Mr Reiz approached the dock to speak to the defendant and Rudakubana nodded in response to him. 

After this brief, inaudible interaction, Mr Reiz asked for the charges to be put again to Rudakubana.

Mr Reiz confirmed there was no dispute that the defendant was Rudakubana and he could hear what was being said.

Judge Mr Justice Goose said: ‘And he is choosing not to speak?’

Mr Reiz said: ‘Yes, my lord.’

Mr Reiz then told the judge: ‘I am instructed for the indictment to be put again.’

The clerk then began reading each of the 16 counts of the indictment, the defendant replying, with the single word, ‘guilty’ each time the clerk repeating back, ‘You wish to change your plea to guilty’.

After entering the pleas in a low voice, muffled by a facemask, Rudakubana sat hunched forward with his head bowed as the court went on to discuss when he will be sentenced.

Mr Justice Goose asked Mr Reiz whether there was ‘any other material you wish to go through’ before he is sentenced.

Mr Reiz replied: ‘There’s a considerable amount of material about the defendant’s mental health before these offences were committed.’

‘There are previous incidents which may be relevant, either aggravating or mitigating.’

He did not elaborate further about the previous incidents.

Rudakubana kept his head down towards his knees as the judge said to him: ‘You have now pleaded guilty to this indictment and to each of the charges upon it.

‘The next stage is sentence. That will take place on Thursday at 11am.’

He told Rudakubana to keep in touch with barristers.

He added: ‘You will understand it is inevitable the sentence to be imposed upon you will mean a life sentence equivalent will be imposed upon you.

‘I will have to complete the sentencing process on that on that occasion.’

The defendant, who was accompanied in the dock by an intermediary, was then taken down to the cells, walking out with his head bowed forward.

Mr Justice Goose said: ‘I am conscious of the fact the families are not here today.’

Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, confirmed the families had not attended as it was assumed the trial would open tomorrow.

Mr Justice Goose said he extended his apologies to the families that ‘for that reason they weren’t here to hear him enter his pleas’.

She said she would speak to them before the sentence on Thursday.

Rudakubana moved to Banks from Cardiff with his parents and older brother about a decade ago.

The family lived in a mid-terrace three-bedroom house in a newly built cul-de-sac of a dozen or so properties.

A local source said the killer did not mix with others, that the family was unremarkable and there had been no sign of anything wrong.

‘Nobody knows them. It’s only the father who went to work who I’ve ever seen,’ a neighbour said.

In 2018, Rudakubana appeared in a Doctor Who-themed advert for BBC Children In Need.

The now-deleted clip shows him leaving the Tardis wearing a trench coat and tie to look like the show’s former star David Tennant.

Appearing in court in August after he was first charged, Rudakubana initially smiled upon entering the courtroom, then kept his face covered by his sweatshirt for the remainder of the proceedings.

Back in July, Rudakubana was arrested on the day of the attack and charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a knife later that week.

He was charged with production of ricin and the terror offence three months later, although the items were found in searches carried out by police in the days after his arrest.

Unrest erupted across the UK in the wake of the attack, with mosques and hotels used for asylum seekers among the locations targeted.

In the hours after the stabbing, information spread online which claimed the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat.

The day after the attack, thousands turned out for a peaceful vigil in Southport, but later a separate protest outside a mosque in the town became violent, with missiles thrown at police and vans set on fire.

More than 1,000 arrests linked to disorder across the country have since been made and hundreds charged and jailed.

In the first press conference after the incident, at 6.30pm that day, Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told journalists the suspect was originally from Cardiff.

But, the police statement did little to quell the misinformation spreading online.

Police forces do not name suspects before they are charged and Rudakubana – still a youth at 17 – would remain anonymous even after he was charged because of his age.

As floral tributes near the scene grew, so did speculation about who was behind the attack.

When Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited to pay his respects the day after the stabbing, there were hostile shouts of: ‘How many more Starmer? When are you going to do something?’

By that evening, things began to turn violent.

A crowd gathered outside Southport mosque – which has no known links to Rudakubana – for a planned protest on the evening of July 30. 

Shouts of ‘English ’til I die’ were heard and bricks broken off from garden walls were used as missiles.

Police officers initially seemed unprepared for the violence, without riot helmets or shields.

The following week, when the first prison sentences were handed out for those involved, Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary KC described a ‘mob’ using the ‘most foul and racist abuse’, smashing windows, hurling bricks and setting a police van alight.

He said: ‘This was large scale and very violent criminal activity made much worse by the fact that it was happening only a day after entirely different and utterly tragic events.

‘The genuine and collective grief of the residents of Southport was hijacked by this callous behaviour.’ 

Ms Kennedy said 93 officers were hurt, with injuries including fractured legs, knocked out teeth and a broken jaw.

On Wednesday morning, the clean up of Southport began, but by the evening violence had spread further afield – with demonstrations in London, Hartlepool in County Durham and Aldershot in Hampshire.

For the next week, as Rudakubana was charged, appeared before court and officially named, violent protests continued across the country.

Rioters smashed the windows of hotels in Rotherham and Tamworth, and set a library in Liverpool on fire.

The Government announced emergency security for mosques and Sir Keir promised those involved would ‘face the full force of the law’.

Prison sentences began to be handed out the following week and by mid-December more than 360 people had been jailed for their parts in the unrest across the country.

On August 8, there were rumours online of 100 planned protests, with gatherings anticipated in 41 of the 43 police force areas in England and Wales.

Shops boarded up their windows to prevent windows being smashed.

But in most places, only peaceful anti-racism demonstrators gathered and fears of further violent disorder were quashed.

Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana showed violent behaviour in school and was excluded over hockey stick incident

By Eleanor Barlow

The teenager who killed three girls in a stabbing at a Southport dance class showed violent behaviour while in high school, it is understood.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in the stabbing at the Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on July 29.

Aged 17 at the time of the attack, Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and moved with his family to the village of Banks in Lancashire about a decade ago.

Neighbours described the family as unremarkable, but it can now be reported that teachers had concerns about his behaviour.

He was excluded from his secondary school for an incident involving a hockey stick, it is understood.

The teenager, who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, is believed to have left Range High School in Formby in around 2019, before moving to a specialist school.

Teachers at the specialist school, which was within the borough of Sefton, were concerned about Rudakubana’s behaviour and his violence towards others, it is understood.

At his first appearance at Liverpool Crown Court, Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, said it was understood Rudakubana had been unwilling to leave the house and communicate with his family for a period of time.

She said: ‘He was seen by the psychiatrists at the police station but refused to engage with them.’

The court was told he had no obvious evidence of mental health disorder which required diversion to hospital.

His mother, father and older brother were co-operating with police and had provided witness statements.

At all of his court appearances, Rudakubana held his sweatshirt over his face and refused to speak.

When he first entered Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, he was seen to smile towards members of the press before covering his face.

A profile of his father, Alphonse Rudakubana, printed in local newspaper the Southport Visiter in 2015 said he was originally from Rwanda, a country that suffered a deadly genocide in the early 1990s, and moved to the UK in 2002.

Rudakubana, the youngest son of the family, was born in Cardiff, where neighbours of the family described a ‘lovely couple’ with a hardworking father and stay-at-home mother to ‘two boisterous boys’.

In 2013 they moved to Banks, just a few miles outside of Southport, where Rudakubana’s father trained with local martial arts clubs.

The family lived in a mid-terrace three-bedroom house in a newly-built cul-de-sac of a dozen or so properties.

At 11 years old, Rudakubana appeared dressed as Doctor Who in a television advert for BBC Children In Need, after being recruited through a casting agency, it is understood.

The now-deleted clip shows him leaving the Tardis wearing a trench coat and tie to look like the show’s former star David Tennant and offering advice on how best to raise money.

What is the The Al Qaeda Training Manual?

By Duncan Gardham 

Alex Rudakubana pleaded guilty to a terrorism offence relating to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual.

He is said to have possessed the document between August 29, 2021 and July 30, 2024.

The 180-page document, also known as the ‘Manchester manual’, was found by police on a computer in a flat in Cheetham Hill in Manchester in May 2000, more than a year before 9/11.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad, then known as SO13, arrested a man called Abu Anas al-Libi as part of Operation Challenge, an investigation with the FBI into the 1998 truck bomb attacks on US embassies in East Africa that killed more than 200 people.

Libi, real name Nazih Abdul-Hamed Nabih al-Ruqaii, had moved to the UK five years earlier. He was released 48-hours later and managed to evade a surveillance team sent to follow him.

Al-Libi was not re-captured until October 2013 when he was tracked down in Tripoli after the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi. He was sent to New York to stand trial but died of liver disease while in custody in January 2015.

The document, originally in Arabic, was translated into English by the FBI and parts were released by the US Department of Justice.

It offers advice on urban warfare and terrorism along with instructions to operatives on how to establish cells and what to say if they are arrested.

An academic analysis of the manual, which quotes it at length, was published by the US Air Force Counterproliferation Center in 2004, written by Professor Jerrold Post, a former CIA officer who was then director of the political psychology program at George Washington University.