Child-killer Axel Rudakubana is set to find out the number of years he will spend behind bars after admitting the murders of three girls at a dance class in Southport.
The 18-year-old pleaded guilty to all 16 offences he faced on the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack at the Taylor Swift-themed class in The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29.
Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were all murdered by Rudakubana (Merseyside Police/PA)
The defendant, who was 17 at the time of the killings, admitted their murders as well as the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Rudakubana is not expected to receive a whole life order because he was 17 at the time of the attack, the measures can normally only be imposed on criminals aged 21 or over, and are usually only considered for those aged 18 to 20 in exceptional circumstances.
He further pleaded guilty to possessing a knife on the date of the killings, which he bought off Amazon, production of a biological toxin, ricin, on or before July 29, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
The terrorism offence relates to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual, which he is said to have possessed between August 29 2021 and July 30 2024.
The ricin, a deadly poison, and the document were found during searches of the home in Old School Close which he shared with his parents, who are originally from Rwanda.
Documents about Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs were found on Rudakubana’s devices during police searches of his home.
Sources said the material showed an “obsession with extreme violence” but there was no evidence he subscribed to any political or religious ideology or was “fighting for a cause”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed the nation on Tuesday to say Britain faces a new threat of terrorism from “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” following the Southport murders.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced an inquiry into the case following Rudakubana’s guilty pleas, including how he “came to be so dangerous” and why Prevent “failed to identify the terrible risk” he posed to others.
Despite a previous conviction for violence, at the age of 17 he was able to order a kitchen knife from Amazon which he used to fatally stab the girls, and Ms Cooper said the Government will “bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.”
Unrest erupted across the country in the wake of the Southport attack, with mosques and hotels used for asylum seekers among the locations targeted.
In the hours after the stabbing, information spread online which claimed the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat.
The day after the attack, thousands turned out for a peaceful vigil in Southport, but later a separate protest outside a mosque in the town became violent, with missiles thrown at police and vans set on fire.
More than 1,000 arrests linked to disorder across the country have been made since the attack, and hundreds have been charged and jailed.
Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, will be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.