Killer of three girls pleads guilty at trial

His knife attack shocked the United Kingdom and triggered the most violent riots in 13 years in the country: the alleged killer of three little girls in England at the end of July is on trial from Monday before the Liverpool Criminal Court. He pleaded guilty.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, is accused of killing Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva, 9, on July 29 in Southport, northwest England, during a a dance class inspired by pop star Taylor Swift.

Ten other people were injured, including eight children, in one of the worst stabbing attacks the country has seen in years.

Violent anti-immigration demonstrations subsequently took place in dozens of towns in England and Northern Ireland, fueled by far-right agitators against a backdrop of internet rumors concerning the suspect.

He had been wrongly presented as a Muslim asylum seeker even though he was born in Wales to a family originally from Rwanda, and lived in Banks, a town near Southport.

On Monday, Axel Rudakubana refused to stand in court and responded “guilty” to every charge. The fact that he pleaded guilty shortened the proceedings, and the judge announced that he would pronounce his sentence on Thursday.

The violence lasted several days, during which rioters attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, mosques, and clashes took place with the police, mobilized en masse, or with against demonstrators.

On August 8, thousands of people gathered across the country to say “stop the far right” and against racism and Islamophobia.

Although Axel Rudakubana was a minor at the time of the events, the courts authorized the revelation of his identity in the face of rumors circulating about him.

Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who came to power a few weeks earlier, denounced “far-right” riots and promised the greatest firmness for the perpetrators of this violence and for those who stirred it up online.

As of mid-December, more than 410 people had been sentenced across the country in connection with these riots, including more than 360 to prison, according to a count carried out by the British news agency PA.

Two men received nine years in prison, the heaviest sentence handed down in the crackdown on this violence.

A body responsible for monitoring police action estimated that they had underestimated the climate of violence and the weight of disinformation which culminated in the riots this summer.

The Southport attack sparked a wave of horrified reactions across the country. King Charles III visited the site in August to meet the surviving children.

The day after the attack, singer Taylor Swift, then in the middle of her global tour, said she was “completely shocked”. According to several media, the star met two of the injured girls on the sidelines of his concerts in London in August.

Prince William and his wife Kate also visited Southport in October and paid tribute to the relief efforts. It was the couple’s first joint engagement since the princess finished chemotherapy.

If the terrorist motivation was not retained, in October, Axel Rudakubana was also charged with “possession of information (…) likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”, the police accusing him of producing ricin, an extremely toxic poison, and of possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual.

Ahead of his trial, he has already appeared in court several times, via video link from prison, but has refused to speak.

At a hearing in mid-December, he refused to say whether he was pleading guilty or not. Consequently, the judge considered that he denied the charges against him.