Mother of Southport attack victim tells inquiry her life was 'ripped apart' and asks why children 'weren't protected'

The mother of a seven-year-old girl killed in last summer’s Southport stabbing told a public inquiry on Monday that her life had been “ripped apart” and demanded to know why children were not protected from the attacker.

Jenni Stancombe, 36, gave a tearful statement at Liverpool Town Hall as the inquiry chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford examines contacts between the attacker and multiple public bodies, including the police, courts, the NHS and social services, and whether those agencies failed to identify the risk he posed or could have prevented the attack.

Stancombe said she and her husband, David, had enrolled their daughter Elsie Dot in a Taylor Swift–themed dance class at the start of the summer holidays on July 29, 2024, only for the seven-year-old to be fatally stabbed inside the Hart Space dance studio by Axel Rudakubana, then 17. Rudakubana admitted three counts of murder and was jailed in January with a minimum term of 52 years.

The attack also killed nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar and six-year-old Bebe King. Eight other girls and two adults were seriously injured.

"This should never have happened in a safe and just society," Stancombe told the inquiry. "This cannot happen, no other parent should feel this pain… We lost everything that day. And I need to understand how this happened." She described driving to the studio, frantically searching for her daughter and being told Elsie had died inside.

Stancombe said the family’s lives had been destroyed by the attack and that she and her husband had been left haunted by what they saw that day. She described the daily pain of walking past Elsie’s empty bed and the difficulty of telling the couple’s younger daughter that her sister was dead. The younger child now struggles with anxiety, Stancombe said.

Stancombe criticised aspects of the criminal process, saying details of Elsie’s injuries were made public during Rudakubana’s sentencing hearing and had been livestreamed. "The judge’s sentencing remarks devastated us, they were not necessary," she said. "The Crown Prosecution Service knew how important it was to us that those details were not to be made public. But they were. And Elsie, as well as us, was failed. Those remarks never needed to be spoken in open court. They never needed to be livestreamed."

Alice da Silva Aguiar’s mother told the inquiry that the family’s "perfect life" had been torn from them and described keeping Alice’s voice-playing teddy with them when they sleep because "it is the closest that we will ever get to Alice." She urged the inquiry to remember her daughter "dancing and singing away" as it considers evidence.

The inquiry is focussing on how Rudakubana, who had prior contact with public agencies, came to carry out the July attack and whether information-sharing, risk assessment and decision-making by those agencies were adequate. Sir Adrian has been hearing evidence from family members and will consider records and witness testimony from the police, health services, social services and the courts.

Families attending the hearing urged changes to prevent a recurrence. Stancombe said the murders should be "a line in the sand" and called for accountability so that parents and children can gather without fear. She asked the inquiry to ensure that "the people and institutions responsible for ensuring that safety are fully accountable."

Rudakubana was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court in January after admitting murder. Prosecutors and defence teams provided evidence at that hearing on the nature of the attacks and the defendant’s state of mind; family members at the inquiry said some of those details had added to their distress.

The public inquiry will continue to take testimony and examine how information about Rudakubana was collected, assessed and acted on across agencies. It will also consider whether different actions at any stage could have prevented the deaths of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King, and the injuries suffered by other children and adults on July 29, 2024.

Families said their lives had been irrevocably changed, and called on the inquiry to recommend reforms that would protect other children and give surviving relatives answers about how a 17-year-old came to carry out a mass stabbing at a community class.