Axel Rudakubana ‘planned similar attack on old school one week before Southport rampage – but plan was foiled by dad’
THE teenager guilty of stabbing children to death at a dance workshop had planned a similar attack at his old school just a week earlier, it’s feared.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, was kicked out of Range High in Formby, Merseyside, in 2019 over claims he brought a blade into class and made threats to attack another pupil.
Police were called in and the Year 9 student – then aged just 13 – was sent home, before returning with a hockey stick, it’s claimed.
The headmaster is believed to have intervened and he was expelled.
Cops fear he’d plotted to target pupils at the same school just seven days before the Southport stabbings, but his plans were thwarted.
Rudakubana booked a taxi – the same way he travelled to the Taylor Swift-themed dance class – under a fake name from his home to take him to the Range High School.
It’s believed he’d been planning to target pupils on the last day of term as they broke up for the summer holidays.
But he was stopped from making his journey when his father ran out and intervened.
Referring to when Rudakubana was expelled from school, a neighbour said: “He was trouble.
“There’d been a few issues with other classmates and then one day he just snapped and arrived at class with a knife.
“Thankfully nobody was hurt but it’s terrifying to think what he was capable of. The other school kids had a lucky escape.
“After he was kicked out he returned with a hockey stick. The school expelled him after that.”
Teachers had concerns about his behaviour from when he entered year nine after his family moved from Cardiff, where he was born.
Rudakubana called Childline and told them that he was being racially bullied and was bringing a knife into school to protect himself, it is understood.
One former classmate at the Range said: “He was in my year at Range from around 2017 to 2019.
“I sat next to him in French. He was ok, fairly quiet. His only interest was gaming.
“He was involved in a fall-out with another boy at school, so one day he burst in armed with a hockey stick and attacked the boy.
“I think the victim suffered a fractured risk. Anyway he was expelled after that, or asked to leave. That was the last I saw of him.”
It’s said that Rudakubana then attended two specialist schools, The Acorns in Lancashire, and Presfield High School and Specialist College in Southport, and teachers were concerned about his behaviour.
His in-person attendance at Presfield was less than 1 per cent, it is understood.
Today, Rudakubana plead guilty to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift dance class.
The court was told he had no obvious evidence of mental health disorder which required diversion to hospital.
His mother, father and older brother were co-operating with police and had provided witness statements.
The 18-year-old knifed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, to death on July 29.
Aged 17 at the time of the attack, Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and moved with his family to the village of Banks in Lancashire about a decade ago.
Rudakubana was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court today charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder.
He was also accused of two terror offences – although police are not treating the July 29 attack as terror-related.
The teen pleaded guilty to all 16 charges against him – including possession of a bladed article in a public place, namely a kitchen knife with a curved blade.
Rudakubana also admitted possession of information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000″.
And he pleaded guilty to one charge of the “production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974”.
This relates to an Al-Qaeda manual and ricin that were found at his home following the attack.
It was the first time Rudakubana has spoken out loud in court after so far refusing to open his mouth throughout proceedings.
Speaking through a surgical mask, he replied “guilty” as all 16 counts were put to him one-by-one.
Timeline of horror - how the attack unfolded
– 2002: Rudakubana’s father Alphonse moves to the UK from Rwanda, according to an interview he gave to his local newspaper in Southport in 2015.
– August 7 2006: Rudakubana is born in Cardiff, Wales.
– 2013: The family – including Rudakubana’s father, mother and older brother – move from Wales to Banks in Lancashire, a few miles from Southport.
– July 29 2024: Shortly before midday, a knifeman enters a dance class at The Hart Space in Hart Street in Southport.
Bebe, Elsie and Alice are fatally wounded. Eight other children are injured, as are instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes. Police say they have detained a male and seized a knife.
Within hours, claims spread online that the suspect is an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat in 2023. Some claims include an alleged identity.
– July 30 2024: In the evening, a peaceful vigil is held outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue, where flowers are laid in memory of those who died. Shortly after the vigil, a separate protest begins outside the town’s mosque in St Luke’s Road.
People throw items towards the mosque, property is damaged and police vehicles are set on fire.
– July 31 2024: Demonstrators gather in Whitehall, London, for an “Enough Is Enough” protest. Flares and cans are thrown at police and more than 100 people are arrested. Disorder also breaks out in Hartlepool, County Durham, and Aldershot, Hampshire.
– August 1 2024: Police announce that Rudakubana has been charged with the murders of Bebe, Elsie Dot and Alice, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article. He is not named by police because of his age.
He appears in court in Liverpool and Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary KC rules he can be named, as he is due to turn 18 in a week.
He initially smiled on entering the courtroom – then kept his face covered by his sweatshirt for the remainder of the proceedings before the case was adjourned.
Later that evening, demonstrators gather outside a hotel in Newton Heath, Manchester.
– August 2 2024: Three police officers are taken to hospital after disorder in Sunderland.
– August 3 2024: There are scenes of violence during planned protests across the UK, including in Liverpool, Hull, Nottingham and Belfast.
– August 4 2024: Disorder continues, including outside a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where masked demonstrators launch lengths of wood and sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers.
– August 5 2024: The Government holds an emergency Cobra meeting in the wake of the disorder and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vows to “ramp up criminal justice”. That evening, a peaceful vigil is held in Southport, a week on from the killings. Police deal with disorder in Plymouth, Devon and Darlington, County Durham.
– August 7 2024: Prison sentences for those involved in the unrest begin to be handed out. Derek Drummond, 58, is the first person to be jailed for violent disorder at Liverpool Crown Court, where he is sentenced to three years.
More than 100 protests are planned for across the country, with counter-demonstrations taking place, but the majority of police forces report very little trouble.
– October 29 2024: Merseyside Police announces Rudakubana will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink the next day charged with production of a biological toxin, Ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
– October 30 2024: Rudakubana appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink from HMP Belmarsh to face the two new charges. He holds his sweater over the bottom half of his face and does not respond when asked to confirm his name.
– November 13 2024: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court via videolink. He covers his face with his grey sweatshirt and does not speak throughout the hearing. About 20 family members of victims sit in the public gallery. The case is adjourned until December 12, when a preparatory hearing will take place.
– January 20 2025: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court for the first day of his trial where he pleads guilty to all 16 charges, including the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.