Southport families say killer’s parents ‘should be accountable’

The families of the three girls murdered in the Southport attacks have condemned the killer’s parents for failing to take responsibility and “staying silent” when they knew how dangerous their son was.

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed by Axel Rudakubana, then 17, in a knife attack in 2024.

The girls’ families said “deeply distressing” evidence from the killer’s parents, heard at the Southport Inquiry, showed “this tragedy was not inevitable. It was the result of neglect”.

The killer’s parents apologised to the families at the hearing, saying they were “profoundly sorry” for their “failure”.

Elsie’s parents, Jenni and David Stancombe, said they believed the killer’s parents, Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, “should be held to account for what they allowed to happen”.

“They knew how dangerous he was, yet they stayed silent,” they said.

“They failed not only as parents but as members of our society.”

The killer’s parents “knew his behaviour was escalating” in the months, weeks, and days before the attack, they said, “and still, they did nothing”.

They accused them of showing “no real remorse or acceptance of the devastation their son caused”.

Alex and Sergio Aguiar said the system had failed their beloved Alice, Bebe and Elsie.

“This tragedy was not inevitable,” they said.

“It was the result of neglect – neglect by those who should have known better, and by a system that repeatedly ignored warning signs.

“The institutions and authorities whose role it is to safeguard children failed in their most essential function and because of those failures, we have lost everything.”

Bebe’s parents, Lauren and Ben King, added: “What we’re struggling to comprehend is not just [the killer’s parents’] failure then, but their failure now – to acknowledge, to take responsibility, to face up to what they allowed to happen.

“But this isn’t just about the actions of one family.

“This is about the repeated failings of agencies and professionals who should have known better – who did know better – and still did nothing.”

The statements followed Mr Rudakubana and Ms Muzayire giving evidence at the public inquiry into the killings.

The couple who gave their evidence via videolink, which could be heard but not seen by the public and press, both apologised to the victims’ families.

Ms Muzayire, who moved to the UK from Rwanda with her husband in 2002, said her family had come to the inquiry with “broken hearts”.

“There are no words that can ever be enough to express our grief and remorse for the children whose lives were taken or forever changed by our son’s actions,” she said.

She said there were “many things” she and her husband wished they had done differently.

“[For] our failure, we are profoundly sorry,” she added.

During his second day of evidence, Mr Rudakubana said he was “desperately sorry” for the families of the victims, and was “so ashamed” he “lost the courage to save their little angels”.

Nicholas Bowen KC, representing the bereaved families, told him: “They have complete disdain for your excuses and the manner in which you have answered questions.”

Mr Bowen was then stopped by inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford, who told him: “That’s not appropriate at all.”

The girls’ parents issued their statements as the inquiry concluded its first phase. A second phase of the inquiry is expected to focus on the risk posed by young people with a fixation or obsession with acts of extreme violence.

Rudakubana, 18, is serving a minimum 52-year sentence for the murders.