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It was a crime that stopped time for the entire nation. An innocent Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop that descended into a bloodbath when a volatile teenager walked in with a knife. On July 29, 2024, Axel Rudakubana, then aged 17, began stabbing young girls with the heartless aim to kill, leaving Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, dead. Eight other children and two adults, dance class leader Leanne Lucas and businessman Jonathan Hayes, were badly wounded. What should have been a fun day of friendship bracelets and singalongs for those young people in Southport, Merseyside, is now infamous for actions described as "pure evil". The horrendous crime left one question: why? Inquiry evidence from Rudakubana's family has now lifted the veil on a home in Banks, Lancashire, plagued with violence and fear that comes across as a ticking time bomb. The Southport Inquiry started to examine missed opportunities to stop Rudakubana, phase one of evidence ended on Thursday after nine weeks of evidence. The findings will be collated in a report in the coming months. Rudakubana and his older brother Dion were both born in Cardiff after their parents claimed asylum in the UK in 2002. Father Alphonse Rudakubana and mother Laetitia Muzayire lived through Rwanda's genocide in 1994, which saw hundreds of thousands of people killed by ethnic extremists. Mr Rudakubana has depressing memories of the mass slaughter, having lost both parents and three of his sisters during the killings, and was himself kidnapped and threatened by armed groups. His wife also had family members killed. They would talk about the genocide at home in the UK but the boys were spared the graphic details. The family moved to the north west of England in 2012 when Ms Muzayire started a new job and Mr Rudakubana retrained as a taxi driver, becoming the boys' primary caregiver and a "hands-on dad". Both sons went to Christ the King Catholic High School in Birkdale, Southport, before Dion was diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition and became a wheelchair user. The siblings were moved to Formby's Range High School because it had better accessibility. Dion revealed in the inquiry that his brother was typically given more attention as the youngest, but this shifted when Dion was diagnosed, leading to "tension". Asked if his brother resented this, Dion replied: "Yes, it was never explicitly stated by him as that, but it did coincide." Rudakubana's first two years at the new school were very normal. But as he approached his 13th birthday his mood deteriorated, spending time alone playing video games at home and "pushing the boundaries" that his parents set. He told his parents he was being bullied and teachers were picking on him. This was seen as manipulation, however, as they were just minor feuds. Rudakubana had violent bursts and Dion became "increasingly wary" of his brother, who was "larger and stronger". The short temper escalated to violence at school and he was sent home for attacking a pupil in an English lesson. On October 7, 2019, a 13-year-old Rudakubana called Childline and admitted carrying a knife into school 10 times to attack an alleged bully. Childline reported the incident to Lancashire Constabulary and Rudakubana was expelled from school. Dion claimed at the inquiry that it was "common" for pupils to carry knives at that school, and that the expulsion of his brother was to make an example of him following a poor Ofsted report. Dion, however, did not condone his brother's knife carrying. Mr Rudakubana reacted by calling Childline and complaining that it had got his son expelled. He also contacted the Lancashire Constabulary officer who had responded to the call and asked him to speak on his son's behalf. Mr Rudakubana claimed he was a "desperate parent taking desperate measures to involve the people who knew the case". Rudakubana was sent to pupil referral unit The Acorns School, telling its deputy headteacher during an initial meeting that he was willing to use the knife. Mr Rudakubana once again reacted in a dismissive way, pointing to his son's undiagnosed autism that made him "communicate like a five-year-old". The pupil referral unit "put firm boundaries in place" to monitor the high risk pupil's behaviour. Mr Rudakubana, however, claimed the weekly reports caused his son "physical pain" and had a significant impact on his fragile mental health. The enquiry heard that during Rudakubana's early weeks at Acorns, teachers revealed concerns about his his interests in school shootings and comments about murder, guns and severed heads. He was referred to the counter terrorism-led Prevent programme, but Mr Rudakubana again dismissed this, accusing the referral unit of being a prison and insisting his son's comments had been manipulated. On December 11, 2019 Rudakubana left his home disguised in school uniform and took a taxi back to Range High School with a knife and hockey stick hidden under his jacket. He wanted to attack his alleged bully, but when they couldn't be found, he instead attacked an innocent pupil in the corridor so he wouldn't "get in trouble for nothing". Rudakubana received a 10-month referral order and remained at Acorns under a specifically-tailored education, health and care plan. Dion said his brother "lost touch with his friends completely," and became increasingly isolated, developing a "profound fear of the outside world". Rudakubana's behaviour became common knowledge for authorities and he was referred, unsuccessfully, to Prevent twice more. This was after he showed interest in Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi, the London Bridge terrorist attacks, MI5 and the IRA, the Taliban and American government, the Holocaust, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. His family did not know these grim interests extended to documents and pictures linked to genocide, torture, slavery, Nazis, anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic material. By this time, Mr Rudakubana admitted he "lost control" of his son, the inquiry heard. Rudakubana spent large amounts of time alone on his computer reading about atrocities, terrorist attacks and mass violence. His mum believed he was reading online journals because of his interests in history, economics, current affairs and politics. When asked why they didn't install online parental controls, Ms Muzayire said: "Because we never thought that our boys would go online to look at bad things." Rudakubana was frequently violent towards his dad. In 2021, the family had to call Lancashire Constabulary. Incidents included Rudakubana flooding the house, throwing food, and kicking his dad in the testicles, to which Mr Rudakubana responded by striking his son around the face. This came after an argument over where the teenager's pet hamster was buried in the garden. A shocking situation on November 30 saw Rudakubana pull windscreen wipers off a rental car in order to assault his dad. Dion said the police were called "because we were scared he might kill my dad". Terrified Dion sent messages to a friend claiming "something potentially fatal is the major concern", adding: "My brother doesn't really show mercy so my dad just has to try not to die." Mr Rudakubana told proceedings that he became "conditioned" to his son's behaviour and would allow the abuse "because this was the only way of getting through the day". The cycle saw the violence "over quite quickly", followed by a period of calm. Rudakubana's mother became "physically unwell" living in the volatile household and would not engage with her son to tell him off for his behaviour. On March 17, 2022, Rudakubana went missing from home and was found by police officers armed with a knife on a bus. He told the officers he wanted to stab someone to get his social media accounts deleted and expressed an interest in making poison. Surprisingly, police returned him home with no consequence. Dion recalled in the following days his brother was "angry" at being stopped and "he was violent around the house for a while". The family had repeated contact with Lancashire County Council's Children and Family Wellbeing Service, Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, based at Alder Hey, and the Youth Offending Team. The Southport Inquiry has heard there were a series of failures from the services including basic functions such as sharing information or reading the paperwork. But the inquiry also heard how the Rudakubana family would "pick and choose" what information to share, failing to set boundaries for their son, and even manipulated services against each other. One doctor refused to work with Mr Rudakubana, alleging he "intimidated" her because of her gender. Rudakubana refused to leave the house to attend Southport's Presfield High School, instead building a disturbing collection of weapons, including seeds to make toxin ricin, a bow and arrows and three machetes. He also had a sledgehammer, jerry can and knives. The teenager is said to have funded the orders through a mixture of his own genealogy business, which saw thousands of pounds deposited in his account, and funds from his parents. Mr Rudakubana went to so far as to give his son money for basic tasks like showering. He recalled at least one machete was delivered as an age-verified parcel with an "18 plus" sticker on the box. The parcel was delivered to the family's next door neighbour under a fake name. The dad said he didn't open the package or confront Rudakubana about it because "it would have quickly escalated". He then added: "This is an instance I regret so much. I should have called the police." But Rudakubana's online orders largely went unregulated and untouched. When asked about the packages, Dion said: "There was the same level of caution he had with us touching things of his generally." By early 2024 Rudakubana was uncontrollable, threatening to kill his dad after he was warned of eviction from the family home. Mr Rudakubana revealed his son tried to drink cooking oil before pouring it over his dad's head. The boy then poked his dad in the chest and said: "If you get me out of here, this house, it may take a day, a week, or it may be years, I will kill you". Rudakubana holed himself indoors for lengthy periods, but on July 22, 2024, he asked his dad about his former school, Range High School, which was finishing for the summer holidays. Rudakubana later went into his dad's bedroom "holding a kitchen knife" and asked for the machete his dad had hidden the year before. Mr Rudakubana said his son "started to lightly stab the bed" and he had to pull up his legs to dodge the blade. The dad managed to get Rudakubana out of the room and close the door. Afterwards Rudakubana tried to get into a taxi with the knife, ordered the previous week from Amazon. A desperate Mr Rudakubana begged the taxi driver not to take his son, and the cabbie eventually gave in and allowed his dad to drag him back into the house. The boy later told his dad: "Next time if you stop me there will be consequences." Mr Rudakubana told the inquiry: "I didn't see it to mean that the next time he stepped out of the house he was going to attack people." The family were asked if the reason they failed to report the incident to police was because they didn't want Rudakubana to go into care, to which Mr Rudakubana said: "Yes, we knew what to do…but we wanted to buy some time, just some time…I'm ashamed. I accept that responsibility. It was obvious then but it required so much courage." Dion returned from university days later and was told by his dad to be "very careful" around his brother. Dion said he always felt the risk of danger was towards him or his parents, adding: "The consistent risk to life inside the home had existed during those years and so my feeling at that point was entirely focused on that alone." The family woke late on July 29 and Mr Rudakubana helped his older son prepare for the day. They heard the front door slam, and Ms Muzayire recalled running to Dion's window and watching Rudakubana slowly leave Old School Close. She said: "I was worried but at the same time I thought he's going to try and be brave and go for a walk...I immediately felt nervous and worried for him, but not that he would harm anyone." She went back into her room and "prayed" his walk went well after the family had a discussion about finding the Amazon knife packaging hidden in the washing machine. Mr Rudakubana received a WhatsApp text later that day from a member of the family's church who told him of the fatal attack. He said he heard helicopters above the house and "felt sure" it was his son. Dion, meanwhile, was in Specsavers when he heard the news of a mass stabbing. He told police: "I then started to worry it might be my brother." He thought his parents were the victims. When asked in the inquiry why his brother would attack a children's dance event, Dion said: "Children are very valuable to society...and it would hurt society particularly badly if something like this happened." The family were the last people to give evidence in phase one of the inquiry this week. Both parents apologised for their son's crimes, with Mr Rudakubana telling proceedings: "I'm ashamed I lost the courage to save their little angels." Ms Muzayire said she grieves for the innocent lives lost. The parents of the murdered girls rejected the apologies. The Stancombes said: "Parents should be culpable when they knowingly allow such evil to exist unchecked under their own roof." The Aguiars said Rudakubana's parents' "failure to take responsibility, to act, and to intervene...directly contributed to the devastating loss of our daughter's life." The Kings similarly added: "Time after time, they had opportunities to intervene, to stop this, to protect others. "If they had acted with any real sense of duty, Bebe, Elsie and Alice would still be here." Rudakubana was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 52 years in prison in January this year.
