A teenager who attacked a dance class in Southport, England, with a knife last summer, killing three girls and injuring 10 others, will be sentenced on Thursday.
Judge Julien Goose, who is presiding over the case, said the equivalent of a life sentence was inevitable after the attacker, 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana, pleaded guilty on Monday.
Mr Rudakbana appeared at Liverpool court wearing a gray sweatsuit with his mouth and nose covered by a blue medical mask. When asked by the judge to identify himself, he refused to speak and silently rested his head in his lap.
But shortly after the sentencing hearing began, as prosecutors read out the details of the case against him, Rudakubana began screaming from the dock in the back of the room. ”
The judge noted that medical experts had examined Mr Rudakubana that morning and deemed him fit to attend the hearing. The lawyer told the judge that the defendant had not eaten for several days, and Rudakbana continued to scream for several minutes.
Judge Goose said, “These proceedings are under my control, Mr. Rudakbana, not yours. Do you understand?'' Then he removed Mr. Rudakbana from the courtroom, saying, “I will not let him interfere.'' I ordered him to take it off.
Since Mr Rudakubana pleaded guilty on Monday, a portrait has emerged of a deeply troubled young man obsessed with violence and the years since the July 29 knife attack in the town of Southport. It also became clear that the project had attracted the attention of local authorities. North of Liverpool.
After the attack, Britain was roiled by a series of riots as misinformation about the attacker's identity swirled on social media and messaging apps. False claims that he was an illegal immigrant or newly arrived asylum seeker were amplified by far-right agitators. Mr Rudakubana is a British national who was born in Wales to Rwandan parents.
Police and prosecutors said there was no evidence to attribute him to any particular political or religious ideology.
At the age of 13 and 14, he was referred three times to Britain's counter-terrorism program Prevent because of his preoccupation with violence, but each time he was deemed not to meet the criteria for intervention and was ultimately removed from them. The introduction was withdrawn.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said from Downing Street on Tuesday that the attack was a sign of evolving domestic terrorism, with young people being radicalized by a “tsunami of violence that is freely available online”.
“We are also seeing lonely people, sociopaths and young men committing acts of extreme violence in their bedrooms, seeking notoriety and accessing all kinds of material online,” Starmer said. He said some people are “obsessed with that extreme violence, which at first glance is a drink in itself.”
Mr Rudakubana was also found guilty of weapons charges for possessing the knife used in the attack, manufacturing a biological toxin and “possession of information of a kind that might be useful to a person committing or preparing an act”. received the verdict. After investigators discovered the deadly toxin ricin in his home and a PDF file titled “Military Study of Jihad Against Tyrants: Al-Qaeda Training Manual.”
The judge will not be able to sentence him to life imprisonment (with the condition that the perpetrator may never be released on parole). Because he was only 17 years old at the time of the fatal attack.
In 2019, Rudakubana was expelled from school for bringing a knife to school, and a few months later he attacked a student again with a hockey stick. He then enrolled in a school for children with special needs.
His local protection agency said he had struggled to integrate into his new school and became increasingly isolated when schools closed across the UK at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. He had been estranged from his family and community long before the attack and rarely left his home.
Police said a week before the attack, Rudakubana tried to go to her old high school, but her father ran out of the house and begged a taxi driver not to take her. Eventually, the boy returned home.
However, on July 29th, he managed to take a taxi to Heart Space. There, a sold-out Taylor Swift-themed dance class for children aged 6 to 11 was held during the school summer holidays.
Rudakubana went on a rampage in a room filled with 26 children, stabbing several of them. Police said Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, were seriously injured and died inside the building, while Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, was among the other children. He ran outside with the others, but collapsed immediately. She was taken to the hospital and died the next day. Eight other children and two adults were injured in the attack.
The incident raised questions about how authorities missed opportunities to stop the violence before it started. The government announced it would conduct a public inquiry into the incident to better understand what happened and what needs to change. But the case also highlighted the problem that young people obsessed with extreme violence have access to online images and messages that fuel their obsession.
