Bombay Durpun - 'Shattered souls': tears as UK child killer sentenced to life

Sentencing violence-obsessed Axel Rudakubana to 13 life terms for the three murders and 10 attempted murders, judge Julian Goose said he believed it "highly likely that he will never be released," ordering he should serve a minimum of 52 years.

The judge said Rudakubana's objective in his 15-minute spree had been the "mass murder of innocent, happy young girls".

If he had not been stopped, "he would have killed each and every child -- all 26 of them -- as well as any adult who got in his way", he said.

Sobs and gasps were heard in court as prosecutor Deanna Heer set out details of the rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July in Southport, northwestern England.

Rudakubana, then 17, was heard to say: "I'm glad they're dead," after he was arrested, Heer told the court.

She described how he burst into the studio in the seaside resort where a group of young girls were sitting on the floor making bracelets, listening to Swift's blockbuster songs.

After his arrest, police found violent content on Rudakubana's devices including images of dead bodies, victims of torture, beheadings, cartoons depicting killing, violence and rape or which insulted or mocked different religions.

On the day of the killings, Heer said, Rudakubana searched online for information about a Sydney church stabbing earlier in the year.

He then travelled to the dance class venue by taxi armed with a 20-centimetre-long (eight-inch) kitchen knife.

"Within 30 seconds, screams can be heard coming from within, followed by children fleeing from the building," Heer said.

Rudakubana, now 18, on Monday pleaded guilty to killing the three girls who died in the attack -- Bebe King, aged six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar. Bebe was stabbed 122 times, the judge revealed.

"Our dream girl has been taken away in such a horrible, undeserving way that it shattered our souls," Aguiar's parents said in a statement to the court.

Stancombe's mother branded her daughter's killer as "cruel and evil", saying his actions were those of "a coward".

Rudakubana was twice ordered out of court by the judge after repeatedly shouting about feeling ill. He was not in court to hear the sentence, having refused to return.

- Living nightmare -

Heer said that on July 29, dance teacher Heidi Liddle was sitting on the floor helping to make bracelets when she saw Rudakubana enter and begin "lunging through the children".

She started pushing them towards the exit but after one of the girls ran towards the toilet she followed her and locked the door.

"Outside, they could hear children screaming, and then the door rattled. When she heard voices outside the door crying for the defendant to stop she realised that not all of the children had managed to escape," Heer said, adding that some were stabbed in the back as they fled.

Some relatives in the public gallery were in tears. Others sat with their heads in their hands and wiped their eyes as tough security camera footage showed frightened, screaming children fleeing the scene.

In victim impact statements read to the court, one 14-year-old survivor who was stabbed in the arm said the day turned into a "living nightmare".

"The thing I remember most about you (Rudakubana) is your eyes. You didn't look human, you looked possessed," she said.

Class instructor Leanne Lucas, 36, who was also injured, said since the attack she could no longer be alone at home, go to work or walk down the street.

"The impact this has had on me can be summed up by one word: trauma," she said.

"He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey," she added.

Rudakubana has also pleaded guilty to possessing a blade, producing a biological toxin -- ricin -- and possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual.

- Riots -

The teenager's rampage triggered a wave of revulsion in the UK.

But viral misinformation that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker sparked anti-immigrant riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities.

Rudakubana was in fact born in Cardiff to parents of Rwandan origin, and lived in Banks, a village northeast of Southport.

His Christian church-going parents, both ethnic Tutsis, came to Britain in the years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Their church has said they are now in hiding for their protection.

The attack has not been treated as a terror incident and he was never charged with terrorism offences -- prompting criticism from some.

Rudakubana was referred three times to the government's nationwide anti-extremism scheme, Prevent, over concerns about his obsession with violence.

V.Upadhyay--BD