Third young girl dies after horrific mass stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, UK

[The Bobster]

Third young girl dies after horrific mass stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, UK

The unidentified 9-year-old girl “died in hospital in the early hours of this morning,” Merseyside Police said.

nypost.com

Third young girl dies after horrific mass stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, UK​

By
Social Links for Isabel Keane



Published July 30, 2024

Updated July 30, 2024, 9:46 a.m. ET











A third young girl died early Tuesday from the previous day’s mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in the UK.


The 9-year-old girl — identified by friends and family as Alice Aguiar — “died in hospital in the early hours of this morning,” Merseyside Police said.


Two others killed Monday — girls ages 6 and 7 — have yet to be publicly identified.


Five of the eight other children injured remained in critical condition Tuesday, as do the two adults stabbed while trying to save the children, police have said.


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Alice Aguiar, 9, who was identified by friends and family, “died in hospital in the early hours of this morning,” Merseyside Police said. Family Handout


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Alice Aguiar is seen above in an undated photo before the fatal stabbing. Family Handout


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Children lay down floral tributes at the scene on the corner of Hart Street and Tithebarn Road, Southport, Merseyside. William Lailey / SWNS
Aguiar’s mom, Alexandra Aguiar, shared an emotional tribute Tuesday to her “Princess Alice.”


“In this moment of great pain my soul hurts, my body hurts, my mind hurts. I have a lump in my throat. You were just an innocent child, a happy smiley girl with a bright life ahead of you which a despicable human being took away from you, without pity, for no reason,” she wrote on Facebook, according to the Liverpool Echo.


“Look after your mum and dad who are suffering, who are desolate and broken. Fly high our little star. I love you,” the grieving mom added.

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A GoFundMe for the family, started by the Benridge Care Group, where one of the slain girl’s parents works, had raised over $1,400 as of Tuesday morning.


“Alice is the daughter of one of our team here & she has been a part of the Good Companions family since she was a baby, joining in with many of our activities & events with our families & staff,” the fundraiser notes.


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A flyer for the Taylor Swift event. Instagram/enlighten_kidsyoga_southport
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Police work at the scene in Southport, England, where a man has been detained and a knife has been seized after a number of people were injured in a reported stabbing. AP


A 17-year-old suspect is still being interviewed by cops, who have yet to offer a possible motive but say it is “not currently being treated as terror-related.”


He has not been identified, and police warned Tuesday that a name being spread online “is incorrect .”


Witnesses said the teenager wore a “black hood” when he entered the Hart Space in Southport, just outside Liverpool, during their advertised “morning of Taylor Swift-themed yoga, dance and bracelet making.”


At least 25 children from the ages of 6 to 11 were at the event when the brutal attack unfolded — with the knifeman reportedly pulling up in a taxi, witnesses said.


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The attacker entered the Hart Space, where the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop was taking place. Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
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“Horrendous and deeply shocking news emerging from Southport,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. AP
Officers called to the scene “were shocked to find that multiple people, many of whom were children, had been subjected to a ferocious attack and had serious injuries,” Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.





Swift said early Tuesday that she was “completely in shock” at the deadly attack.


“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously and I’m just completely in shock,” the pop superstar wrote to fans.


“These were just little kids at a dance class,” the “Love Story” singer said.


“The loss of life and innocence and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there,” she said, adding, “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to their families.”

 

[The Bobster]

22 cops injured in clash with protesters near site of UK stabbing attack that killed 3 girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class

Police clashed with an unruly crowd of far-right protesters outside a mosque Tuesday in northwest England near where three girls were stabbed to death in a dance class, Merseyside police said.

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22 cops injured in clash with protesters near site of UK stabbing attack that killed 3 girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class​

By
Social Links for Katherine Donlevy



Published July 30, 2024

Updated July 30, 2024, 8:25 p.m. ET











Nearly two dozen police officers were injured when riots erupted outside a mosque in the UK Tuesday near where three young girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.


Incensed crowds hurled bottles and stones at police officers — and even ignited a police van in a melee that was inspired by online rumors that the killer was a Muslim migrant.


The protesters hijacked a peaceful vigil that was attended by hundreds in the center of Southport to mourn the 13 victims of the stabbings, including seven still in critical condition.


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Protesters clash with police near the site where three girls were killed in a stabbing attack in Southport, England, on July 30, 2024. Richard McCarthy/PA via AP
Officers in riot gear tried to quell the infuriated crowd, who were chanting, “No surrender!” and “English till I die!”




A helicopter hovered overhead as the protesters — some wearing masks — set off fireworks and trashed the street.

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Twenty-two police officers were treated for injuries from the riot, 11 of whom were taken to the hospital, the North West Ambulance Service said. Several were seen bleeding and at least one suffered a broken nose.


The chaos was so severe that the NWAS declared a major incident while responding.


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The far-right group English Defence League protested near a mosque. ZUMAPRESS.com
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A police van was on fire in Southport during the riot. Richard McCarthy/PA via AP
Inklings of unrest surfaced when Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared at the vigil to lay a pink wreath of pink and white flowers with a handwritten note that said: “Our hearts are broken, there are no words for such profound loss. The nation’s thoughts are with you.”


“How many more children?” one person yelled as Starmer was getting in his car. “Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”


Police said the violent crowd were supporters of the English Defence League, a far-right group, and the unrest was inspired by rumors that the 17-year-old suspected of carrying out the massacre was connected to Islam.


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The crowd throwing objects at police officers. Richard McCarthy/PA via AP
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An injured police officer is helped after disorder broke out. Getty Images
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Riot police hold back protesters near a burning police vehicle. Getty Images
“It is sickening to see this happening within a community that has been devastated by the tragic loss of three young lives,” Merseyside Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss said.


Just one day earlier, a knife-wielding madman stormed into The Hart Space, which was hosting a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop for kids between the ages of 6 to 11.


Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, were killed, police said.


Five of the eight other children injured remained in critical condition Tuesday, as are two adults stabbed while trying to save the youngsters.


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Smoke rising from a street in Southport amid the protests. ZUMAPRESS.com
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Multiple vehicles burning after a riot breaks out in Southport. Getty Images
Witnesses described scenes “from a horror movie” as bloodied children ran from the attack just before noon Monday.


A 17-year-old suspect was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Cops have yet to offer a possible motive but say it is “not currently being treated as terror-related.”


He has not been identified and authorities said he was born in Cardiff, Wales, and had lived for years in a village about three miles from where the massacre took place.


Swift said early Tuesday that she was “completely in shock” at the deadly attack.

 

[The Bobster]

Good Samaritan describes coming face-to-face with Taylor Swift party stabber who killed 3 girls: ‘I wanted to hurt him so bad’

Joel Verite and a coworker were on their lunch break on Monday when the stabbing began.

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Good Samaritan describes coming face-to-face with Taylor Swift party stabber who killed 3 girls: ‘I wanted to hurt him so bad’​

By
Social Links for Steve Helling



Published July 30, 2024, 6:12 p.m. ET













A Good Samaritan who was working as a window washer found himself in suburban nightmare when he stumbled upon the aftermath of the mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed UK dance workshop where 3 little girls were killed and 10 other people injured.
Joel Verite and a coworker were on their lunch break on Monday when the stabbing began. As they sat in the coworker’s car, they noticed the fracas outside The Hart Space, where the 17-year-old suspect had begun his “ferocious” attack on the young girls at the kids’ event.
Verite, a 25-year-old former rugby player, saw an injured girl and ran to her aid.
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Joel Verite told his harrowing story to Sky News. Sky News
“I jumped out the car and I just asked her if she was alright,” Verite told SkyNews. “She just looked in complete shock and had blood all over her body. She just screamed at me: ‘He’s killing kids over there, he’s killing kids over there’.”

Verite called police as he spotted a woman transporting “four or five” injured children in her car. She pointed to the building where the stabbing had begun. He fearlessly entered the building and came face to face with the attacker on a flight of stairs.

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“I look up and there’s this guy with a knife,” he says. “We locked eyes and then he scurried off.”
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Dozens of police and forensic officers descended onto the scene. Getty Images
“I thought: ‘There are more people in there,’ and I just wanted to hurt him so bad,” Verite recalled. “But I wanted to help people. So I came outside and I was screaming because I knew where he was.”
Verite, who is being hailed as a hero, smashed the door so that the suspect would be unable to escape. Then he told authorities where to find the attacker. While authorities nabbed the suspect, Verite helped carry injured children to safety.
Three girls were killed in the stabbings: Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, all died from their injuries.
Several other girls are still in the hospital.
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(From L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Stancombe, and Alice Aguilar
Now that the attack is over, Verite is grappling with the complex emotions that follow such a heinous attack. “I’m a new dad and that was one of the hardest things for me, seeing these children in that position,” he said. “I feel disgusted and really upset for all the parents and all the children who had to go through that.”
He added that what he saw will “probably stay with me for the rest of my life.”



When he was asked if his actions were heroic, Verite demurred.


“I’m not going to label myself a hero,” he said. “I’m happy that I’ve at least managed to save at least one life, if not more.”

 

[The Bobster]

Suspect in fatal Southport stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed event ID’d as Axel Rudakubana

The UK teen accused of fatally stabbing three little girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was identified for the first time Thursday as Axel Rudakubana. Rudak…

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Suspect in fatal Southport stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed event ID’d as nigger Axel Rudakubana​

By
Social Links for Olivia Land



Published Aug. 1, 2024

Updated Aug. 1, 2024, 8:35 a.m. ET










The UK teen accused of fatally stabbing three little girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was identified for the first time Thursday as Axel Rudakubana.


Rudakubana, 17, was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents, according to the BBC.


He is charged with the murders of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, a yoga teacher and a businessman.


Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary said that despite not being an adult, the boy can be named because he will turn 18 next week.


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The Southport suspect, 17, has been named as Axel Rudakubana.


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Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Ursula Doyle (left) and Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy announce that a 17-year-old boy was charged with the murders of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed party on Aug. 1, 2024. AP


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Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, Bebe King, 6, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, died from their injuries. via REUTERS
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Footage captured a masked figure pacing outside a house that was raided in Southport after the knife attack. ITV News
The revelation was also a bid by the court to “remove the mystique” about the suspect’s identity online, ITVX reported.


Police have not disclosed a motive for the crime, but the charges revealed that the alleged murder weapon was a kitchen knife with a curved blade.


Rudakubana wore a gray tracksuit and black slippers for his five-minute hearing at the Liverpool City Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, ITVX added.


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Far-right demonstrators have launched several violent protests, ostensibly in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday. News Licensing / MEGA
The teen pulled his sweatshirt over his face and kept his head down during the proceedings, the outlet reported.


Families of the victims were not present in court, ITVX said.

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On Monday morning, Rudakubana is believed to have taken a taxi to Hart Space, a dance school in the seaside town of Southport, where he allegedly attacked children and other attendees at a Taylor Swift-theme dance and yoga workshop.


Two little girls died at the scene, while a third was pronounced dead at the hospital on Tuesday.


The two injured adults — both of whom remain in the hospital — were Leanne Lucas, 35, who was leading the dance class, and John Hayes, who worked next door and ran to protect the kids after hearing screams.


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Riot police stand near a fire during a protest in Southport following the fatal stabbings. Getty Images
Newly released CCTV footage showed the suspect wandering a residential area about 15 minutes from the dance studio wearing a face mask and a green hoodie shortly before the mass stabbing.


Rudakubana is believed to have acted alone, and police have said the attack is not thought to have been terror-related.


A woman who knew the teen’s family when they lived in Cardiff described Rudakubana’s parents as a “lovely young couple,” the BBC noted.


The bloodbath sparked riots, with more than 20 police officers wounded near the scene of the stabbing when far-right protesters fueled by online speculation staged a rally near a mosque.


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A few hundred protesters hurled beer cans and flares near British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s residence in Downing Street in central London on Wednesday evening. AFP via Getty Images
The violent crowd torched a police van and several cars and threw rocks and bottles at officers in a demonstration targeting Muslims and immigrants — despite police repeating that a teen identified online was not the suspect.


“I want to make it clear that I fully condemn any attack on our emergency services, these are the same services that responded to the tragic attack yesterday,” Southport MP Patrick Hurley said of the incident.


Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the protests as “thuggery” and said the crowd interrupted a peaceful vigil to mourn the dead and support the surviving victims.


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People attend a vigil for the victims of the knife attack in Southport on July 30, 2024. REUTERS
The unthinkable attack came as Taylor Swift, 34, capped off the triumphant German leg of her globe-trotting Eras Tour.


“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously and I’m just completely in shock,” the pop star wrote in a message posted to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday.


“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she added. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to their families.”


A JustGiving page started by fans of the “Love Story” songstress raised over $425,000 for the victims and their families within just a few days of the stabbing.

 

[The Bobster]

UK teen pleads guilty to murder of three girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance party as it’s revealed he was plotting more terror attacks

Rudakubana faces life in prison when he is sentenced on Thursday.

nypost.com

UK teen pleads guilty to murder of three girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance party as it’s revealed he was plotting more terror attacks​

By
Isabel Keane



Published Jan. 20, 2025

Updated Jan. 20, 2025, 7:48 a.m. ET











A UK teen pleaded guilty Monday to killing three girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer — and for possessing an al-Qaida manual.


Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty in the murders of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, as well as 10 counts of attempted murder for stabbing eight other children along with two adults who tried to help them at the kids’ event on July 29.


He also pleaded guilty to charges related to keeping both the poison ricin and an al-Qaida manual in his home at the time of the vicious rampage.

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Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to killing three girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer. Helen Tipper / SWNS
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The teen also pleaded guilty to charges related to keeping both the poison ricin and an al-Qaida manual in his home at the time of the vicious rampage. AFP via Getty Images


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Alice Aguiar, 9, who was identified by friends and family, “died in hospital,” Merseyside Police said. Family Handout
Rudakubana faces life in prison when he is sentenced on Thursday.


The stabbings, which were carried out in the English town of Southport, triggered a week of violent rioting after the suspect was falsely identified as an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat.

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Elsie Stancombe, 7, was killed in the stabbing. Merseyside Police
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“No words can describe the devastation that has hit our family as try to deal with the loss of our little girl Bebe,” the 6-year-old girl’s family said. Merseyside Police
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Alice Aguiar is seen above in an undated photo before the fatal stabbing. Family Handout
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Children lay down floral tributes at the scene on the corner of Hart Street and Tithebarn Road, Southport, Merseyside. William Lailey / SWNS
Rudakubana, whose motive in the attack remains unknown, was born in Wales.


Prosecutors have not said what they believe led to the horrific attacks.


In addition to the three young girls left dead, eight other girls ranging in age from 7 to 13 were also injured in the attacks.

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Dance teacher Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes, who worked at a business next door and intervened, were also injured in the attack.


Rudakubana received additional charges several months after his arrest for the production of a biological toxin, ricin, and for having a computer file with an Al-Qaida training manual titled: “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants.”


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A flyer for the Taylor Swift event. Instagram/enlighten_kidsyoga_southport
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The attacker entered the Hart Space, where the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop was taking place. Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
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“Horrendous and deeply shocking news emerging from Southport,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. AP
Police have not yet said whether the stabbings are classified as terrorism, as the motive remains unclear.