1 of 2 | Axel Rudakubana, 18, of Banks, Lancashire, was sentenced Thursday to 52 years in prison, minus time served, the longest term ever imposed on a person who was 17 or under at the time they committed their offense. Photo courtesy Merseyside Police
Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A British court sentenced teen Axel Rudakubana to a record 52 years in prison, minus time served, for murdering three young girls in a frenzied stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in July.
Handing down 13 life sentences at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday for murdering Bebe King, 6; Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, and the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults at The Hart Space dance studio, Justice Julian Goose told the 18-year-old he would most likely never be released from prison.
Dance instructor Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes, a passing businessman who fought Rudakubana, both suffered serious knife wounds but court-imposed reporting restrictions mean the eight children cannot be named.
The sentence is the maximum period Rudakubana must serve before he becomes eligible to apply for parole. Justice Goose was unable to impose a "Whole Life Sentence" normally applied for crimes of this seriousness, where the offender remains in prison until they die, as Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the attack on July 29.
Earlier, the court, with families of victims, survivors, members of the public and the media in attendance, heard the full details of what happened that day including how Rudakubana stabbed Bebe King 122 times and Elsie Dot Stancombe 85 times and would have killed all the children attending the class if he could have.
"I am sure Rudakubana had the settled determination to carry out these offenses and had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child -- all 26 of them," Justice Goose said.
"What he did on July 29 last year has caused such shock and revulsion to the whole nation, that it must be viewed as being at the extreme level of crime.
"His culpability, and the harm he caused and intended, were at the highest," he added, but ruled it was not an act of terrorism and that Cardiff-born Rudakubana was not responsible for days of anti-immigrant rioting that engulfed England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the wake of his killing spree.
People wept as prosecutor Deanna Heer, KC, played CCTV video of the fatally injured Alice da Silva Aguiar stumbling out of the building onto the street along with two other girls who had been stabbed, before collapsing.
Alice fought for her life for 14 hours in hospital before succumbing to her injuries.
In their victim impact statement to the court, her parents described how the loss of their only child had left them trapped inside a "horror movie with fear, anxiety, loss and terror playing on a loop."
"Our dream girl has been taken away in such a horrible, underserving way that it shattered our souls," their statement read.
"We're heartbroken that we can never help Alice fulfill her dreams, we can't hug her anymore, brush her hair, take her to school through her beloved Botanic Gardens."
Jenny Stancombe, Elsie's mother, told Rudakubana his actions were "beyond contempt."
"You deliberately chose that place, fully aware that there would be no parents present, fully aware that those girls were vulnerable and unable to protect themselves."
The parents of a girl, 7, referred to as Child A, who escaped but was caught by Rudakubana and dragged back inside and stabbed 30 times, told of the doctors' battle to save her and life-changing injuries she was left with.
Child A's mother said the whole family was struggling to rebuild their lives, including her husband who had found their daughter at the scene and remained "completely traumatized."
In her victim impact statement read out in court, a 14-year-old girl, referred to as Child F, who was helping out with the class attended by her younger sister, told of the terror Rudakubana induced in her, saying that the coldness of his eyes, which she described as "possessed," still haunted her day and night and that she and her sister, who was unhurt, were in a constant state of fear.
"The beginning of my nightmare started when I saw you. I thought you were playing a joke. I saw you in your green hoodie and face mask. The thing I remember most about you is your eyes. You looked possessed and you didn't look human.
"You stabbed my arm so severely that my arm looked like it was inside out. You stabbed me in the back so hard that you fractured my spine. My lung collapsed."
She described how when she was allowed home from the hospital, their mother had to sleep beside her and her sister for them to feel safe.
"I was just so scared and constantly reliving what you did. My sister would get our parents to check all the windows and doors before bed to make sure we were safe. You caused that fear in us," she said.
However, Rudakubana was not in the dock to hear, having been earlier removed from the room for shouting and disrupting proceedings.
His sentence was the longest ever given to an offender aged 17 or under but was immediately attacked as being unduly lenient and triggered calls for sentencing guidelines to be changed to allow Whole Life Terms to be given to persons under the age of 18 with the government saying it would review Rudakubana's case.
The Attorney General's Office confirmed in a statement that "Law Officers" had received a request to consider the sentence under its Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and would make a decision within 28 days on whether to refer it to the Court of Appeal.
It warned, however, of the high threshold for a successful ULS referral.
"The sentence must be not just lenient but unduly so, for example, if the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offense," reads the statement.
Also pending, is an independent public inquiry into failings by authorities to prevent the attack announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Monday after it was revealed Rudakubana was known to police, the courts, social workers and mental health services throughout his teenage years, including being referred three times between the ages of 13 and 14 to a government anti-radicalization program.