UK teen pleads guilty to girls' murder

Shocking incident at Taylor Swift dance class triggered riots

LIVERPOOL:

A teenager on Monday pleaded guilty to killing three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK's most violent riots in a decade.

On what was set to be the opening day of his trial, Axel Rudakubana, 18, admitted murdering the three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.

The July stabbings sent shockwaves across the UK, triggering unrest and riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities, including in Southport and Liverpool.

Authorities blamed far-right agitators for fuelling violence, including by sharing misinformation claiming the alleged attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the attack in the seaside resort near Liverpool on July 29, 2024.

Ten others were wounded, including eight children, in one of the country's worst mass stabbings in years.

Rudakubana admitted a total of 16 charges, including the three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a blade.

He also admitted production of a biological toxin, ricin, as well as possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual, although the attack has not been treated as a terror incident.

Wearing a grey tracksuit and a surgical mask, the teenager refused to stand in court and did not speak except to say the word "guilty" when the charges were put to him. The judge ruled that he would be sentenced on Thursday. In December, not guilty pleas had been entered on Rudakubana's behalf when he remained silent in the court, and the case had been set for a four-week trial.

At all of his earlier court appearances, Rudakubana also held his sweatshirt over his face.

The unrest linked to the killings lasted several days, and saw far-right rioters attack police, shops, hotels housing asylum seekers as well as mosques, with hundreds arrested and charged.

Adjourning the case for sentencing, the judge warned Rudakubana that he faced a long custodial sentence