A man who was stabbed while trying to intervene in the Southport knife attack told a public inquiry on Monday that the scars on his leg are a "daily reminder" of the ordeal.
Jonathan Hayes said he was working in his office in Hart Street when he heard children screaming from the dance studio next door and saw 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana enter on 29 July 2024 and "systematically" begin stabbing children at a Taylor Swift–themed workshop. Three children — Alice Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King — were killed and at least eight other children were seriously wounded.
Mr. Hayes told the first phase of the Southport Inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall, that he left his office to help and was "immediately" confronted by the attacker. He said he grappled with the knifeman, fell to the floor and only then noticed blood pouring from a wound in his leg. Colleagues closed his office door and applied a makeshift tourniquet fashioned from a bag strap; he said that likely saved his life. He was carried out of the building by paramedics and taken to Aintree Hospital, where his wife Helen met him.
"My initial feeling was one of terror, seeing a man wielding a bloody knife," Mr. Hayes told the inquiry. "That quickly turned to horror as I witnessed critically injured children and began to realise what was happening." He said that when he saw his wife he began crying and kept saying, "I tried to help her, I tried to help her."
The inquiry also heard from the mothers of surviving children who described long-term psychological effects. The mother of a child identified as "child M" said she is "haunted" by a small, ordinary decision to put a load of washing on before going to collect her child and a friend from the studio. She said she now wonders whether arriving earlier could have made any difference.
As she approached Hart Street she heard sirens and encountered a scene she likened to a film set, with wounded children lying on the ground. She said she rushed into the studio and found her daughter sheltering in the house of a nearby resident. The family have since left Southport because of the trauma, she said, and her daughter only began to talk about her memories around the attack's first anniversary. The mother praised the "strength and bravery" shown by the children present that day.
A statement read on behalf of the mother of "child U," who survived without physical injury, described ongoing trauma in the family. The mother said her daughter still begs to sleep with her and that she herself is woken by nightmares and visions of "that man's evil face." She said survivors have been told they are "lucky" the children lived but that such language ignores what she called "a lifetime of scars that you cannot see."
The first phase of the inquiry is focused on Rudakubana's history and his interactions with relevant agencies, as well as any missed opportunities to prevent the attack. Lawyers and officials have been examining whether there were failures in assessment, communication or intervention leading up to the incident.
The attack unfolded shortly before midday on a half-term day. Rudakubana walked into the studio and began stabbing children without warning, according to witness accounts given to the inquiry and earlier reporting. He was arrested at the scene.
Family members and members of the public held a vigil in Southport after the attack, with hundreds blowing bubbles into the air outside the town hall as the community marked the victims and survivors. The inquiry continues to take evidence from survivors, families and agency representatives as it seeks to establish a timeline and identify any failings that could be addressed to reduce the risk of similar events in future.
