‘You didn’t look human, you look possessed’: Little girls who survived Southport attack and bravely tried to rescue their friends reveal the horrors of day that changed their lives forever

Haunting accounts from the little girls who survived the Southport attack have revealed how they bravely tried to save their friends as they faced a day of horrors that would change their lives forever.

It was a sunny morning full of ‘laughter and excitement’ as a group of little girls made bracelets and sang songs at a Taylor Swift dance class. But at 11.45am on July 29, a hooded figure with glinting eyes unleashed an unimaginable horror.

Axel Rudakubana, then-17, burst into the dance studio and attacked the young girls.

Mr Justice Goose said: ‘He walked into the building up the stairs where he could hear the sound of happy children, in his mind with the intention to murder as many of them as he physically could. He wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.’

Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, and tried to kill ten more people.

Yesterday, as Cardiff-born Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in jail, the victims’ families sat quietly sobbing, holding hands in a hushed courtroom as they shared their pain.

The police officer who investigated the case said the innocent little girls had probably never known there was evil in the world until the day of the attack.

In incredibly moving victim-impact statements, the girls who survived the attack and their families told of the agony and unending grief that has shattered their lives.

Reporting restrictions protecting the surviving children’s identities mean they cannot be named or pictured and are referred to under pseudonyms.

One 14-year-old girl said what she remembered most about the attack was the killer’s eyes. She said: ‘You didn’t look human, you looked possessed.

‘It’s sickening what you did, going in there knowing you’re going into a room full of defenceless children.

‘I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing we think you’re a coward.’

Another girl who survived told the court: ‘When people in school asked me ‘Do you wish you weren’t there that day?’ I said that, in some ways, I wish I wasn’t, but also, if I wasn’t there, someone else would have been stabbed and they could have died, so I’m glad I might have stopped someone else getting hurt.’

Meanwhile, the families of the girls killed and injured in the attack called Rudakubana a ‘coward’ for cowering in his cell during the sentencing rather than face the judge.

Below are the testimonies of the little girls who survived the attack that shocked the nation and left the children and their families with the memory of such inconceivable horror.

Child A: It was like a war zone, her father didn’t recognise her
The mother of a seven-year-old girl described how she was so badly injured that her own father didn’t recognise her.

The girl was captured on CCTV fleeing for her life, but Rudakubana dragged her back inside the building stabbing her more than 30 times.

Her mother said her husband entered a scene ‘like a war zone’.

‘There was a girl on the ground who was wearing the same clothes as my daughter’, she said. ‘Lying on the floor whilst members of the public tried to get a paramedic to her. She was so horrifically injured that my husband wasn’t sure if it was her – he had to ask this little girl if she had a brother, and what his name was.

‘She answered. It was her. Laying on the floor bleeding out from her arms and back. Her beautiful long blonde hair was covered in so much blood it looked brown and her daddy couldn’t recognise her. This is one of many, many moments that torture both of us.’

After two operations, each lasting six to seven hours, and multiple transfusions, the victim awoke thinking she was still in the nightmare where she couldn’t breathe.

‘She woke up still trying to grab on to her best friend. Still trying to escape him. Still trying to run’, her mother said.

‘She tells us how she thought it was a prank and when he approached her with the knife upstairs she told him she didn’t want one, she didn’t want to play.

‘But he attacked her.’

The child saw two of her friends die but, despite her injuries, she managed to escape: ‘He left her for dead in a lifeless pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs and she stood up at seven years old, and saved herself.’

The child now tells her parents: ‘I don’t know who I am any more.’

She will be scarred for life. ‘No more crop tops, no more short-sleeved T-shirts. No more swimwear, no more summer dresses’, her mother said.

But she said Rudakubana had not won: ‘He will not be remembered. When we think of Southport we will think of the girls. Their bravery. Their strength. He has completely failed to destroy her spirit, her amazing sense of humour, her fierceness and her pure beautiful heart.’

Child F, 14: ‘You [the killer] didn’t look human, you looked possessed’
Recalling the terrifying moment she encountered the killer, a 14-year-old girl said: ‘The dance club was full of laughter and excitement all morning with the girls full of life.

‘The beginning of my nightmare started when I saw you. I thought you were playing a joke.

‘I saw you in your green hoodie and face mask. The thing I remember most about you is your eyes. You didn’t look human, you looked possessed.

‘I watched you stab someone and then I saw you coming for me. It was like slow motion.

‘You stabbed me in the arm and instinctively I turned and that’s when you continued to stab me.

in the back although I didn’t feel it at the time.

‘All I could hear was the screams.

‘I remember thinking we need to get away as you weren’t going to stop. I knew from your eyes you wanted to try to kill us all.’

Reading out her statement to the court via video link, her voice trembled as she told Axel Rudakubana: ‘It’s sickening what you did, going in there knowing you’re going into a room full of defenceless children.

‘Give me a reason for what you did. Arming yourself with a weapon and stabbing children.

‘I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing we think you’re a coward.’

Child F was at the Taylor Swift-themed event with a sibling, Child T. In a further statement, their family blasted Rudakubana as a ‘monster’.

‘Today our family welcome the sentence imposed on that monster, however nothing will ever reverse the heartbreaking events of that day,’ they said.

‘Our children have been exposed to scenes that no one should ever see and caused unimaginable pain and heartache for us all. Alice, Bebe, Elsie and their families remain in our thoughts always.’

‘We’re heartbroken that we can never help Alice fulfil her dreams, we can’t hug her any more, brush her hair.

‘We can no longer wake up with Alice’s happy smile or get a morning kiss and hug from her… It feels like we’re stuck in a 5D horror movie.

‘We would do anything to hold Alice one more time.’

Girl, 10: I saw the blood coming out
A girl of ten was making bracelets when she was stabbed in the back by a man she thought was a cleaner.

She said: ‘When I saw him and what was happening I thought it was a prank.

‘I realised it wasn’t a prank when I saw blood coming out of me.

‘I remember everything being fuzzy and everything that was going through my mind was about my family and friends.

‘I was thinking, I don’t want to die, I have got to get out of here.

‘I was trying to scream but I was struggling to scream.’

She managed to run out of the building to her mother, who was waiting in the car outside, before she was airlifted to hospital.

‘I was scared about what was happening to me in hospital,’ she said.

‘I didn’t want to tell my mum at first what I had seen as I didn’t want her to worry, and if I died, I wanted her to live her life without her knowing about it so I told the trauma nurse.’

After six hours of surgery, during which her spleen had to be removed, the girl awoke in a panic thinking that someone would get into her room.

She said: ‘I think about all the other children that were there and I feel guilty that I wasn’t able to help the children that died and I think: ‘Was there anything I could have done to help them?’.’

Child C: My being there that day saved someone else
When asked to explain the impact of the appalling attack, a nine-year-old survivor known as Child C, who suffered three wounds to her back, said: ‘I struggle with my emotions, and I have scars that I know will be with me forever, but I want to look forward.

‘When people in school asked me, ‘Do you wish you weren’t there that day?’ I said that, in some ways, I wish I wasn’t.

‘But also, if I wasn’t there, someone else would have been stabbed and they could have died, so I’m glad I might have stopped someone else getting hurt.’ The nine-year-old’s proud parents said yesterday: ‘These are not the words that any little girl, who just liked yoga and making bracelets, should ever need to say.

‘Her words both horrify us and make us immeasurably proud.

‘Our daughter is strong. Our daughter is positive. Our daughter is brave.

‘Our daughter is beautiful. Our daughter loves and is loved. Our daughter sees the best in everyone.

‘Our daughter is everything that Axel Rudakubana is not. She is our hero.’

The dance teacher: How can I live knowing that children died?
Class instructor Leanne Lucas says she is paralysed by guilt about what happened, despite being attacked as she saved the lives of many children.

‘I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died,’ she said.

She added: ‘He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey. To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible.

‘For Alice, Elsie, Bebe, Heidi, and the surviving girls. I’m surviving for you.’

Ms Lucas suffered five stab wounds to her scalp, neck, the right of her spine extending through the muscle between the ribs, her shoulder blade and forearm.

She now lives in fear.

‘I constantly see his face’, she said. ‘As a 36-year-old woman, I cannot stay in my own home alone. I cannot go to work.

‘I cannot walk down the street without holding my breath as I bypass a person and then glance back to see if they’ve attempted to stab me.’

Her colleague, Heidi Liddle, said in a short statement: ‘My heart is with the families of Alice, Bebe, and Elsie, as well as everyone affected by this devastating tragedy.’

The parents: It was the worst day of our lives
The parents of other children who survived Axel Rudakubana’s murderous rampage shared their profound gratitude to emergency services and locals who rushed to help in the moments after the terror began.

The mother of one child survivor, who hid in the toilets with Heidi Liddle, described the ‘chaos’ as she arrived to collect her daughter.

‘I abandoned my car and ran to find one of the event leaders, Leanne, covered in cuts and blood and saying, ‘he just came in and stabbed us’,’ she said.

‘As I approached the house where the kids ran to for safety, all I could hear were screams.

‘My daughter wasn’t there, and it quickly became apparent she was still in the building with the knifeman.

‘Following the arrival of the emergency services, I ran into the building after them to be with my daughter who I already believed was seriously injured or dead.

‘The police told me I couldn’t go in the room. To my relief I turned around… and saw her standing there with the other event leader, Heidi.

‘Heidi saved my girl that day by following her to the toilet after she headed there instead of down the stairs and out the door with the other children.’