Axel Rudakubana held back by pupils in chilling video from Range classroom
The teen murderer was restrained in class during his time at the Formby high school
During his time at Range High School, Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana was restrained by his classmates. Tonight sees BBC Panorama look back at the tragedy which unfolded on July 29 last year where Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six were killed in the horrific attack.
The murders took place at The Hart Space in Southport on when he entered the studio during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Rudakubana unleashed more than 10 minutes of violence on the class of 26 children before he was arrested by police who rushed to the scene. The 18-year-old from Banks, Lancashire, moved to the region in 2013 and was enrolled at St Patrick's Primary School.
Following his time at the Southport primary school, he joined Range High School in Formby, where Rudakubana was involved in a number of incidents, one of which was captured on video where he appears to try to attack another person in a classroom. The video is believed to have been filmed when Rudakubana was in either year 7 or year 8 of the school.
In the video, pupils can be seen holding Rudakubana back as he tries to make his way towards a teacher in the classroom. This came before his permanent exclusion from the school in October 2019.
Rudakubana then moved to The Acorns School in Ormskirk, a special educational needs (SEN) secondary school, it was after he joined the Lancashire-based school when he returned to Range High School with a hockey stick, knife and "kill list" which included two males and one unknown female.
He injured a child at the school who was not on the list of names the teen was in possession of before he was detained by police. The ECHO also revealed how an official document noted that Rudakubana had been referred four times to Prevent – a multi-agency taskforce spearheaded by Counter-Terrorism Policing to stop vulnerable people being drawn into criminal behaviour – but it was confirmed by the ECHO three referrals were actually received by the service.
During the opening day of the trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, January 20, 2025, Rudakubana also pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article in a public place, namely a kitchen knife with a curved blade.
He has also pleaded guilty to production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, and possession of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, namely a PDF file entitled "Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual".
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Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years behind bars.
