Southport victim 'born to be a star', parents tell BBC

The parents of Alice Aguiar said she loved the performing arts and going to school

The parents of one of the girls killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last year have told the BBC their daughter was "born to be a star".

Alice Aguiar, who was nine when she died, began dancing when she was 16 months old and her parents are fundraising for a new playground which will include a stage.

Looking over architect's drawings of the proposal during an interview with BBC Breakfast, her mother Alex said: "[The stage] would be her favourite part."

In the family's first TV interview, Alice's father Sergio said he would be running the London Marathon to raise funds for the playground. They plan to build it at Churchtown Primary School, where Alice was a pupil.

He said his daughter loved going there and enjoyed reading. An outdoor library is part of the proposals, along with a trim trail track, den-building area and the stage.

"The school was the place where she spent most of her time and she was really happy [here]," said Alex.

"She loved it. For us it's really important to make this [project] happen. She would be happy, I'm sure she's proud of us."

The BBC accompanied the couple as they visited the Southport school for the first time since their daughter's death.

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were also killed in the attack carried out by Axel Rudakubana who was last month jailed for a minimum of 52 years for their murders.

Sergio said: "If you ask the people who met her, no-one [saw] her in a mood. No matter what happened, she would always have a smile."

Alice's favourite teacher feels the same way.

"That really was Alice in a nutshell," said Alan Bowen. "That beaming smile, all the time."

He taught her when she was in Year 3 and said it was always a pleasant surprise to find out you were someone's favourite teacher.

"I've been teaching for more than 20 years... sometimes something clicks," he told the BBC. "You see a lightbulb in some children and you just get them, and I think Alice got me and I got Alice."

Alan Bowen, who was Alice's favourite teacher, said her beaming smile was "her in a nutshell"

Speaking about the plans for the stage in the new playground, he said: "Every single minute of every single play time and break time, she'd [have been] on that stage.

"And she wouldn't just be on the stage dancing, she'd be getting people involved. They'd be doing dance routines; they'd be having songs; they'd have microphones... she'd be on the stage directing everything that was going on."

He explained several of Alice's schoolfriends were also keen on singing, dancing and amateur dramatics.

"I would use that quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream," he said of her. "'Though she be but little, she is fierce.'"

The plans for the playground include a pergoda and a memorial carved into a beam dedicating the facility to Alice and Bebe, who also previously attended the school.

The plans were revealed to the schoolchildren just before the half-term holiday and some recorded their reactions on video, which were shown to Alice's parents.

"I love the remembrance post about our friend Alice," one child said. "I like the [planned] quiet corner because I like to draw and just have some time on my own, sometimes. Thank you so much, please make it happen."

Sergio won't be on his own when he runs the marathon on 27 April. Joining him will be the school's head teacher Jinnie Payne.

Alice began dancing at 16-months-old and was enrolled by her mother at baby ballet classes

She said the playground would be a symbol of how they celebrate the lives of the victims.

"I think it is really important. For the children, it's joy, it's fun, it's positivity," she told the BBC. "It's our forward motion, our next step."

Though what struck her recently was how the wider community were going to help build this project, rather than being led by an individual or single institution.

"We're all going to help to build this and when you do something together - that feeling of togetherness, of community - that will bring the positivity that we need."

She and Sergio are being prepared for their marathon effort by a personal trainer whose daughter walked to school with Alice every day.

Other parents and staff at the school will also be running to raise money, whether it be at the London Marathon or the closer Blackpool festival of running. They are aiming to raise £250,000 for the project.

The flowerbeds near the entrance have been replanted by local volunteers - they contain some of the commemorative flowers and plants left outside the school following Alice's death.

In the eulogy given at her funeral last August, Alex and Sergio paid tribute to the "wonderful community" who had supported them.

Ms Payne also spoke to the congregation and told them one of the school's teachers had named her baby in Alice's memory, a moment that appeared to deeply move her mother.

Asked by the BBC what she thought of when remembering her daughter, Alex said: "Happiness, kindness - everything good."