Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana, 18, earlier plead guilty to three murders

He was handed life sentences that will run concurrently, while a minimum term of 52 years, means he will be 70 before eligibility for parole

He had removed from the Liverpool Crown Courtroom for disruption sentencing and the judge proceeded in his absence

Last summer Rudakubana, in a knife attack killed Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance summer camp for girls in Southport, Lancashire, UK

He was charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murders of eight more children, dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and businessman John Hayes

The suspect who turned 18 just six days after the attack was convicted on all counts as charged

Born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff, Wales, authorities said he had a “long-standing obsession with violence, killing and genocide

Convicted child killer, Axel Rudakubana, [photo], 18, was removed from Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday before being sentenced to life in prison. He’d earlier pled guilty to killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe

Rudakubana, 18, taken out of the Liverpool Crown Court for disrupting proceedings after earlier pleading guilty to murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe. He was handed sentences that will run concurrently, meaning he will serve a minimum prison term of 52 years and will not be eligible for parole until he is at least 70 years old.
Rudakubana has decided not to come up from the cells to be sentenced and the judge proceeded in his absence.
Pleading for leniency pre-sentencing, even as Rudakubana’s defense attorney, Stanley Reiz, presented mitigating factors, he admitted those are limited.
“There is very little that the defendant has done that can be said could be to his credit,” he says.
One mitigating factor, he said, was seeking help via Childline at the age of 15, though he did this anonymously.

Killed: Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven

Killed: Alice da Silva Aguiar, Nine

Killed: Bebe King, six

Another one is his age. Reiz says he also “lacked maturity for his age”. Examples of this were the “candor” about his “deviant thoughts” that he told to police and school staff about wanting to kill people.
These demonstrated a “level of maturity that fell far beyond his chronological age of 15 and demonstrated a startling lack of empathy”.
His behaviour is “childlike” and that he rebels when he is asked to do something.
He points to Rudakubana yelling out in the courtroom earlier in the day, and said a normal 18-year old would “realize he would not succeed in controlling anything with his petulant behaviour”.
Reiz says due to his age, there is a “prospect of rehabilitation” and “there still exists at least the possibility… that he will recognize the gravity of what he has done”.
He asks for the shortest minimum term the judge feels able to hand down.
The mitigation was extremely short, apparently ineffectual as well because his client was handed the maximum sentencing by Mr Justice Groose.
For the three counts of murder Rudakubana was sentenced to life sentences with a minimum term of 52 years, minus 175 days spent in custody [175 days].
Eight counts attempted murder of children,18 years minimum.
Two counts attempted murder of adults, 16 years minimum.
Possession of a knife, 18 months.
Production of biological toxin, 12 years.
Possession of document likely to be useful to a person preparing an act terrorism, 18 months.

Judge Goose sitting at the Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, sent disruptive triple-homicide convict Axel Rudakubana, 18, out of the courtroom. Noting that ‘Rudakubana planned to kill as many as he could,’ he was sentenced to life in prison, to serve a minimum of 52 years

The judge says the sentences for Rudakubana’s offenses will run concurrently – not consecutively – meaning they will be served at the same time.
But he will still be in jail for a minimum of 52 years when he will be 70 years old.
However Goose says it is highly unlikely Rudakubana will ever be released.
Still some observers believe the 52-year minimum did not go far enough, including Patrick Hurley, the Member of Parliament representing Southport. Hurley has asked the Attorney General to review Axel Rudakubana’s sentence as “unduly lenient”.
Within minutes of the sentencing, the Justice ministry received a request for a review based on the 52-year minimum term being considered as too short.
The case was referred under the unduly lenient sentence scheme – which allows anyone to ask for a Crown Court sentence to be reviewed by the Attorney General’s Office if they think it is too lenient. Based on the request, Attorney General Lord Hermer and Solicitor General, Lucy Rigby, have 28 days to decide whether to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.

Rudakubana had a “long-standing obsession with violence, killing and genocide – Police. Footage from a taxi captures his arriving at The Hart Space in Southport, Wales on the the day he killed the children attending a summer camp

Prior to handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Goose said he was satisfied that for some time “Rudakubana had planned to kill as many as he could”, noting that Rudakubana bought the knife, with a particularly sharp point, which he intended to use.
The killer researched how to stab people, saw the publicity for children’s party at Southport Heart Space Dance School and decided to kill as many as could, targeting very young children.
The judge told the court that says he “must accept” that there was no evidence Axel Rudakubana had any terrorist cause, but added his culpability is “equivalent to terrorist matters, whatever its purpose”.
Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy who has described the attack as “cowardly” and “vicious” says ‘Rudakubana had obsession with violence, killing and genocide’.
In a statement released after the sentence, she says: “[The girls] had come together for a Taylor Swift-themed morning to enjoy dancing, singing and making friendship bracelets in honor of their idol.
‘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.’
Referring to the detail given by prosecution counsel today, Kennedy adds that two of the children who died ‘suffered particularly horrific injuries’.
She says documents and images found on his devices show he had a “long-standing obsession with violence, killing and genocide.
‘We can say that from all those documents is that no one ideology was uncovered and that is why this has not been treated as terrorism.’