Southport remains “in shock” following last year’s devastating attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, with the community still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.
Patrick Trollope, Editor of the Southport Reporter, described the impact on the close-knit seaside town as “beyond words”.
“It’s still in shock, it’s been devastating for the entire area. I think it’s touched everybody, there’s nobody in the town that this hasn’t touched.
“For a small seaside town that’s very close-knit, it’s something that you would never have ever thought would take a happen or even take place we have major events and things like that all the time in the town.
Patrick Trollope said that the town is rallying round the families of the victims
GB News
“There’s always a chance that something might happen at a major event, but someone at a dance class so innocent. So it’s beyond words.
“Southport will recover no matter what, it will recover. It’s like anywhere in the world when you’ve had a major incident places do recover after a while, but it would take a lot of help and a lot of support will be needed.”
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He explained: “Everybody is trying to guard families as much as possible, they need time to recover. They need time to actually take in what’s happened as well and grieve.
“At the moment, with everything going on my own personal view is that I don’t think they’ve had time to grieve or come to terms with what’s happened.
“I’ve never known anything like it, with so much interest from all over the world and so much bad news being mixed in with fake news and conspiracy theories and everything else, it’s been an absolute nightmare.”
The attack claimed the lives of three young children: Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
The community laying flowers outside Southport’s town hall
PA
The attack has had far-reaching consequences for the local economy, with businesses in the town suffering “massively,” according to Trollope.
Downing Street has ruled out the possibility of a whole life sentence for Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, despite growing calls for a change in the law.
Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, received a 52-year minimum sentence at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government “takes our commitment to international law seriously”.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were all killed in the attack
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The UN Convention on the Rights of a Child prevents life imprisonment without possibility of release for offences committed by persons under 18.
“We share the public’s disgust at these barbaric crimes and the desire for this vile offender never to be on our streets again,” the spokesman said.
The 18-year-old was absent from the court during sentencing, as he was likely to be “disruptive”.
Southport MP Patrick Hurley has called the sentence “not severe enough” and requested the attorney general review it as “unduly lenient”.
“We need a sentence that represents the severity of this crime that has terrorised the victims and their families,” Hurley said.