Axel Rudakubana, the 18-year-old who murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, has been sentenced to serve a minimum of 52 years in prison.
The time includes concurrent sentences for murder and attempted murder. Earlier this week, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder months. He pleaded guilty to possessing terrorist material and producing ricin.
Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the attacks, which occurred in Southport, England. He killed Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Aguiar, 9, in a stabbing attack at Southport Heartspace Dance School on July 30, 2024. Eight other children and two adults suffered serious injuries. Others were left in critical condition.
According to BBC, Judge Julian Goose stated Rudakubana’s intentions as having been to “murder as many as he could,” adding: “It was such extreme violence of the upmost and exceptionally high seriousness that is difficult to comprehend why it was done.”
Investigations into the attack revealed that Rudakubana accessed a PDF file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual,” according to The Independent. Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy added that additional uncovered documents suggested “long-standing obsession with violence, killing and genocide.”
Goose maintained that while there wasn’t sufficient evidence to suggest the teen intended to commit an act of terrorism, he considers the attack “equivalent to terrorist matters.” Rudakubana will likely never be released, he added.
“[The girls] had come together for a Taylor Swift-themed morning to enjoy dancing, singing and making friendship bracelets in honour of their idol,” Kennedy said. “Those girls – who range in age from six to 13 – were the polar opposite of the calculating teenager who carried out the harrowing and atrocious, pre-meditated attack.”
Southport Member of Parliament Patrick Hurley has requested the Attorney General to review the sentence on grounds that “the sentence handed down today is not severe enough, it is not long enough for the crimes committed, we need a sentence that represents the severity of this crime that has terrorized the victims and their families.”
