Southport stabbing: 18-year-old pleads guilty to murder at Taylor Swift-themed dance class

Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder on Monday, the first day of his trial for a knife attack at a dance hall in the English city of Southport last July.

Mr. Rudakubana faced three. Murder charges For Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Da Silva Aguirre, 9, who were on winter break from school in a Taylor Swift-themed dance and bracelet-making class.

He is also accused of attempting to kill 10 people, including eight children and two adults, and possessing a knife for the July 29 attack.

After the raid, police searched Mr. Rudakubana’s home and said they found ricin, a deadly poison, and a PDF file titled “Military Studies in Jihad Against Dictators: An Al Qaeda Training Manual.”

It was for Mr. Rudakubana. He was later charged Producing a biological toxin and “possessing information of a kind that may be useful to a person to commit or prepare a terrorist act.”

Mr. Rudakubana, who pleaded not guilty on Monday, appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Authorities have not yet declared the scene an act of terrorism. Serena Kennedy, Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, who oversees policing in the region; he said in a statement. In October, “an initiative must be created to classify a case as a terrorist incident.” He added, “We strongly advise caution against anyone who presumes to be motivated by this matter.”

The trial, which will take place at Liverpool Crown Court, was originally expected to last four weeks, but Mr Rudakubana is now scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.

Mr Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales to Rwandan parents. He was living in Banks, north of Southport, at the time of the attack.

Last week, Britain’s Attorney General Richard Hermer issued a statement. Official advice Reminding social media users and journalists of the risk of contempt of court and warning that inaccurate or speculative comments can influence jury deliberations. He warned that anything that proves or infers Mr. Rudakubana’s guilt could jeopardize his trial.

After the Southport attack, Britain was rocked by a series of violent incidents on social media and messaging apps as misinformation about the attacker’s identity circulated. False claims that the suspect is an undocumented immigrant or newly arrived asylum seeker have been fueled by anti-immigration activists and members of the far right.

Many people, including neo-Nazis, later helped fuel the violence, which included attacks on mosques and hotels where asylum seekers were staying, injuring dozens of police officers.

Mr Rudakubana was 17 at the time of the attack and could remain anonymous until he turned 18 under English court law. But a few days after the attack, a judge continued to publicly release his unusual name. Trying to fight the spread of wrong information.

There have been hundreds of people since last summer’s violence Accused Dozens of people were sentenced to prison terms for their involvement in the violence that broke out across the country.

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Monday morning that the trial would be “a very sad and sad time for the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie, the survivors and the people of Southport and the whole country”.

“The most important thing for all of us is to make sure that the legal process is on track, to respect the hard work of the court and to ensure that justice is done,” he said.