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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Teen who stabbed children at Taylor Swift dance class pleads guilty

By William Booth Washington Post

LONDON - It was a horrific knife attack that left three little girls dead and others wounded at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in south England on the first day of summer vacation last year.

The rampage in Southport, a seaside town, sparked days of rioting, with crowds attacking police, mosques and hotels sheltering asylum seekers, after the spread of false claims on social media that the attacker was a Muslim migrant who had recently come to Britain illegally in a wave of people the English Channel on small boats.

As it turned out, Axel Rudakubana, now 18, was born in Wales and attended British schools. His family arrived decades ago from Rwanda. Police did find an al-Qaeda document on his computer.

On Monday, in a packed Liverpool courtroom, as his trial was set to start, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murder in the stabbings of three people and to attempting to stab to death 10 others.

He also pleaded guilty to producing the biological toxin ricin and possessing terrorist literature, including “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual.”

The Guardian newspaper reported that since his early teens, Rudakubana had been referred three times to Prevent, a government program to divert people suspected of being radicalized away from terrorist violence. The newspaper said the teen sought information about school massacres in the United States and terrorist attacks in London.

In court on Monday, with his face covered in a blue surgical mask, Rudakubana spoke in a whisper. He initially refused to confirm his identity, sitting hunched over, according to the BBC.

After the guilty pleas, the judge said he intended to sentence the assailant Thursday to life in prison for killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7.

Reporters said the last-minute plea stunned the small courtroom. The families of the slain girls were not in court because they assumed the trial would get fully underway Tuesday.

Outside the court building, demonstrators stood with a banner proclaiming: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.”

Far-right, anti-immigration activists immediately latched onto the July 29 dance class stabbing. Before police had released any details about the suspect they had arrested, social media was swirling with misinformation. A clickbait news aggregation site based in Pakistan, calling itself “Channel 3 Now News,” shared that the attacker was an immigrant who had entered Britain illegally by boat. Such claims were amplified by far-right influencers in Britain and abroad.

Videos repeating the claim were shared by Andrew Tate, an American British former kickboxing champion who has built a popular personal brand around hyper-masculinity, and Laurence Fox, an actor turned right-wing activist.

Tommy Robinson, a prominent anti-Muslim activist, posted at the time that the “anger is justified” in Southport because the British authorities have “opened our borders,” resulting in “children being butchered and murdered.”

“You care more for Afghanis, Somalis, Eritreans, Syrians, Pakistanis,” he shouted, red-faced, on a video. “They’re a danger to us.”

By then, violent protests had erupted in the streets. Rioters chanting “we want our country back” attacked police, smashed the windows of a mosque and looted a shop. They set fire to trash cans, tires and a police van, which burned for hours, filling the skies with black smoke.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer characterized the riots as “organized, violent thuggery” whipped up by false reports.

Elon Musk, owner of X and a now top adviser to President Donald Trump, posted that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain, in response to views that the violence was a responsible response to “mass migration and open borders.”

The riots ended after police began to charge participants, and after counterprotesters filled the streets, appealing for calm.