Southport teacher saved my girl's life, says mum

The mother of a girl saved by Heidi Liddle (pictured) told a public inquiry 'I owe her everything'

The mother of a girl who survived the Southport attacks after a dance teacher ushered her into a toilet and locked the door said "I owe her everything".

Heidi Liddle told the child to "not make a sound" as they hid from Axel Rudakubana, then 17, as he launched the marauding knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed child's dance workshop in July 2024.

The girl's mother earlier gave evidence to the public inquiry into the atrocity and described arriving at the dance studio to collect her daughter, only to find "chaos".

She said: "I've no doubt in my mind, if Heidi hadn't have stayed in the building with her, she wouldn't have made it out alive."

Ms Liddle was helping the workshop's organiser Leanne Lucas run the event and making bracelets with some of the children when the attacker walked in.

• Southport killer didn't look human, says teenager

On Wednesday she herself spoke to the inquiry and described how she struggles under the weight of "crushing guilt" since the attack.

Alice Aguiar, nine; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Bebe King, six, were murdered while eight other children and two adults - including Ms Lucas - were seriously wounded.

Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Aguiar were murdered in the attack on 29 July 2024

Sitting at Liverpool Town Hall, the inquiry has been hearing from survivors and their families as part of its first phase, which focuses on the killer's history and contact with various agencies, including "missed opportunites".

The mother of the girl, referred to as child X to protect her anonymity, said when she got to the studio in Hart Street she found Ms Lucas "covered in cuts and blood".

She said Ms Lucas told her: "He just came in and stabbed us."

After unsuccessfully checking a house where some of the survivors were sheltering, she told the inquiry she realised her daughter was "still inside the building, with him".

She said at that point she believed her daughter had been killed.

"But then, in the middle of the nightmare, I turned around and I saw my girl standing there with Heidi," she continued.

"Heidi had saved my daughter's life."

Heidi Liddle saw the child running into a toilet and followed her inside

It later emerged Ms Liddle had seen the child running into the toilet instead of down the stairs with the other children, and followed her inside.

While they hid, the killer tried the door handle.

"I owe everything to Heidi for having the foresight to protect my daughter," the mother said.

"I can only imagine how she felt being on the other side of that thin door hearing the screams of the other children and to have experienced him trying to get in to kill them.

"We both physically survived that day but for us the trauma is daily."

The inquiry also heard from the mother of a child referred to as C5, who was stabbed but survived.

She described arriving to pick her up and hearing screaming, before seeing her daughter run past covered in blood.

Speaking calmly and clearly, she told the inquiry: "She heard me call her and ran back to me, telling me 'Mum, I've been stabbed'."

'Things must change'

The family later discovered child C5 had been attacked twice, once as she fell while she tried to flee and again on the landing after she got back up.

Her mother said: "She has described to us screaming out for someone to help her but there was no one there who could."

The inquiry heard C5 "lost her entire blood volume" and was minutes away from death, but survived after emergency surgery at Manchester Children's Hospital where she had been taken by air ambulance.

She said her daughter's spleen was removed and she will remain on medication for the rest of her life.

Her daughter also has permanent scars, which she said are a "brutal reminder of the worst day of her life".

Her mother, reciting her daughter's words about what the inquiry must achieve, said: "I do not want any other child to go through this.

"Children should be protected, things must change."

The inquiry will resume next week.