An 18-year-old British man on Monday admitted to murdering three girls and attempting to kill 10 other people during a brutal knife attack at a dance class last July in Southport, England.
The defendant, Axel Rudakubana, unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all charges against him on the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Mr. Rudakubana admitted to killing Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, who were taking part in a Taylor Swift-themed dance and bracelet-making class on July 29 during their summer break from school, and to the attempted murder of 10 people, including eight children and two adults.
After the stabbings, the police searched Mr. Rudakubana’s house and said they had found ricin, a lethal toxin, and a PDF file titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual.” Mr. Rudakubana was subsequently charged with production of a biological toxin and with “possessing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
The government later confirmed that Mr. Rudakubana had been referred to an official counterterrorism program, Prevent, at least three times before the attack in Southport, when he was just 13 and 14 years old, because of his obsession with violence.
Yvette Cooper, Britain’s home secretary, announced a public inquiry into the lack of action on the warnings, saying that the families and the people of Southport “need answers about what happened leading up to this attack.”
Mr. Rudakubana had contact with the police, the courts, social services and mental health services, she said in a statement, but “those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed.”
The information about his previous referrals to the authorities could not be made public before Mr. Rudakubana’s conviction, to avoid jeopardizing the legal process. Strict rules govern the release of information during active court proceedings in Britain in order to guarantee the right to a fair trial.
“But now that there has been a guilty plea,” Ms. Cooper said, “it is essential that the families and the people of Southport can get answers about how this terrible attack could take place and about why this happened to their children.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday afternoon that there were “grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls.”
“Britain will rightly demand answers. And we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit,” he said in a statement. “At the center of this horrific event, there is still a family and community grief that is raw; a pain that not even justice can ever truly heal.”
On Monday, Mr. Rudakubana, who had initially pleaded not guilty, appeared in court, sitting at the back of the room in the defense dock and wearing a gray sweatsuit. He repeatedly refused requests from the court to identify himself or to speak at a volume that the judge could hear.
The BBC reported that Mr. Rudakubana, whose mouth was covered with a surgical mask, uttered a mumbled “guilty” as each count in the indictment against him was read out.
His lawyer, Stanley Reiz, confirmed that the defendant understood the proceedings and that he had pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him. His admission of guilt came as the court was preparing to hear days of evidence about the harrowing attack.
Now, the case will move swiftly to sentencing, according to the presiding judge, Julian Goose, who ordered that Mr. Rudakubana be sentenced on Thursday.
“You will understand it is inevitable the sentence to be imposed upon you will mean a life sentence equivalent,” he told Mr. Rudakubana after the guilty pleas.
Judge Goose apologized to the families of the victims, as none were in court on Monday. Initial evidence in the trial had not been expected to be heard until later in the week. He said the families would be in the courtroom on Thursday.
Ursula Doyle, the deputy chief crown prosecutor for the Mersey-Cheshire region, said in a statement that the “unspeakable attack” had “left an enduring mark on our community and the nation for its savagery and senselessness.”
“It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence,” she said, adding that Mr. Rudakubana had shown no sign of remorse. “The prosecution was determined to prove his guilt and I am deeply grateful that today’s plea has spared the families at the heart of this case the pain of having to relive their ordeal through a trial.”
The authorities have not declared the stabbing attack an act of terrorism. Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of the Merseyside Police, which oversees policing in the region, said in a statement in October that “for a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established.” She said, “We would strongly advise caution against anyone speculating as to motivation in this case.”
Mr. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to parents who were originally from Rwanda. He was living in Banks, a village north of Southport, at the time of the attack.
After the Southport attack, Britain was convulsed by a series of riots, as disinformation about the attacker’s identity swirled on social media and messaging apps. False claims that the suspect was an undocumented immigrant or newly arrived asylum seeker were amplified by anti-immigration activists and members of the far right.
Several people, including a neo-Nazi, were later found to have helped coordinate outbreaks of violence, which included attacks on mosques and hotels where asylum seekers were staying, and which led to dozens of police officers being injured.
Mr. Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the attack and, under English court rules, he would usually have retained his anonymity until he turned 18. But a few days after the attack, a judge took the unusual step of releasing his name in an attempt to combat the spread of misinformation.
Hundreds of people have been charged for their involvement in the violent unrest across the country last summer, and dozens of people have been sentenced to prison time.
Stephen Castle contributed reporting.
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