The parents of the three girls murdered by Axel Rudakubana have condemned his mother and father for their failures to prevent the Southport attack – saying they should be held to account.
Alphonse Rudakubana and his wife Laetitia Muzayire both broke down in tears at a public inquiry as they were challenged about why they did not report their son to authorities.
Latest updates from the inquiry in Liverpool
Axel Rudakubana was 17 when he killed Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, in a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July last year.
His father told how a week earlier, Rudakubana had burst into his bedroom carrying a knife before he stopped his son taking a taxi to the Range High School in Formby, Lancashire, on the last day of term.
Mr Rudakubana knew his son had a “small arsenal” of weapons, including a bow and arrow and a sledgehammer, and believed he would carry out an arson attack at the school he was expelled from for carrying knives in 2019.
The inquiry heard Rudakubana threatened his father, saying “next time, if you stop me, there will be consequences”.
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His father said he was “ashamed” that he did not call police, but he did not have the “courage” at the time.
He said he was not worried when Rudakubana left home on 29 July last year, even though the last time he had been out alone he was caught with a knife on a bus in March 2022 and told police he wanted to stab someone.
But when he received a WhatsApp message from a member of his church at 1pm about the attack, he immediately feared his son was involved.
Father feels ‘so ashamed’
Mr Rudakubana said his son had turned into “a monster”, and told the families of his victims: “When I cry for him, I remember them, I cry for them.”
“I’m so ashamed I lost the courage to save the little angels and I’m so, so sorry,” he said.
His wife said she had been “naive” and said: “I grieve deeply for my own son, but most of all for the innocent lives lost and the lives that have been devastated.
“There are many things Alphonse and I wish we had done differently, anything that might have prevented this horrific event of 29 July 2024.
“For our failure, we are profoundly sorry.”
What have the victims’ parents said?
In a statement released after the end of the evidence stage of the first phase of the inquiry, Elsie’s mother and father Jenni and David Stancombe, said Rudakubana’s parents “should be held to account”.
“We knew early on that their lack of parenting played a part in all of this, but these statements reveal a failure of parenting on a whole new level,” they said.
“We believe they should be held to account for what they allowed to happen. They knew how dangerous he was, yet they stayed silent.
“They didn’t report their concerns, they didn’t act, and in doing so, they failed not only as parents but as members of our society.”
Bebe’s parents Lauren and Ben King described the evidence of the actions of Mr Rudakubana and his wife as “deeply disturbing and shameful”.
“Where was that responsibility from his parents? They were absent. They turned away from their duties,” they said in the statement released by their lawyers.
“And that was not a one-off mistake, it was a pattern, repeated over days, weeks, months, and years.
“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. It is that simple.”
Alex and Sergio Aguiar, Alice’s mother and father, said the parents of their daughter’s killer failed in their “fundamental and moral duty” to guide their child.
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“Your failure to take responsibility, to act, and to intervene when there were clear signs of danger, directly contributed to the devastating loss of our daughter’s life,” they said.
“This tragedy was not inevitable. It was the result of neglect – neglect by those who should have known better, and by a system that repeatedly ignored warning signs.”
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Rudakubana’s parents could only be seen by the lawyers and chairman Sir Adrian Fulford at the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall, with reporting restrictions in place to protect their identities.
Sir Adrian said he hopes to produce his report on phase one of the inquiry by next spring.
