Mairead Smyth
Reporting from the inquiry

The mother of Child C6 and Child T continues by talking about how her family had tried to move forwards with their lives following the events of 29 July 2024.

"When school came, both our daughters returned," she said. "We tried to continue normality for them, but this is forever shattered.

"For our youngest, Alice’s absence was a constant, heavy presence. She rarely speaks about the attack but in moments of quiet she will simply say “I miss Alice”.

"She has engaged in therapy to help her to manage her grief and anxiety, but her friendships have been affected.

"Some children and parents have struggled to understand her needs, or accused her of getting 'special treatment', leading to tension and conflict and adding strain to an already fragile situation.

"We have as a family experienced hurtful behaviour from people not directly affected, which has compounded the sense of isolation.

"You truly learn who your true friends are in the hours when you need more support than ever before."

Mairead Smyth
Reporting from the inquiry

The mother of C6 and Child T goes on to tell the inquiry: "It felt as though I was watching from outside of my own body, like someone was living my life, within a film.

"Emergency services were everywhere, children lay hurt around me, I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to know.

"By the time I arrived, our eldest had been removed from the house and was lying pale on the ground, a police officer pressing gauze over her wounds.

"At that moment my husband told me our youngest’s best friend, Alice, had been injured badly and that her Mum was alone.

"Faced with the impossible, I made the decision to leave my injured daughter safely with her Dad so I could support my friend.

"We believed at this point our daughter’s injury was an arm wound that would simply need some stitches. Arriving at the hospital later that day I learned that our eldest had been far closer to death than I had realised.

"She needed blood transfusions and a chest drain. All of which had to be completed without us as parents, due to her being diverted to another hospital en route.

"The skill and speed of those treating her saved her life. We will never be able to express the depth of our gratitude to them."

Mairead Smyth
Reporting from the inquiry

The mother of child C6 and CT continues reading her statement.

"Shock took over instantly. I couldn’t make sense of the words.

"I went to my neighbour to drive me to the scene, it was the slowest journey to get there.

"My husband meanwhile had entered the building, witnessing true horror that will stay with him forever, and [was] unable to locate our daughters.

"During his search he recalls time standing still, hearing screams and he then received a call from our eldest and located the girls at the neighbour’s house.

"He relives these moments daily.

"Our youngest ran into his arms, saying "don’t let her die", talking about her sister and insisting she herself was unharmed, even as he desperately checked her over.

"I arrived to a scene reserved for nightmares."

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

The mother of the two children is crying as she reads her statement.

The room here at Liverpool Town Hall is completely silent while she speaks.

Her husband is sitting with her in the witness box, his hand around her waist as he supports her.

The Inquiry Chairman is looking straight at them.

He is not taking notes - he’s listening very deeply to what the children’s mother is saying.

Mairead Smyth
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry begins with a statement read by the mother of children who are referred to as C6 and child T.

She begins reading: "On the 29th of July 2024, our lives changed forever. It was a warm and bright day, one that should have been filled with excitement and carefree plans.

"Our eldest had originally forgotten about the event and arranged to meet her friends, but chose instead to keep her promise to help [class organiser] Leanne, just as she had done at a previous event.

"Our youngest was full of anticipation because she adored Taylor Swift and was looking forward to spending the day with her sister and her best friend.

"Dropping them at the event, their father never imagined the horror that would unfold.

"When my husband returned to collect them at first he couldn’t make sense of what was happening. He called me, his voice urgent. The words he spoke will never leave me: “You need to get here now. The kids have been stabbed."

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

A reminder - all of the children and their families who were involved in the attack are anonymous, and the public inquiry has devised a cypher system to cover their identities. This also prevents us from identifying their parents.

The media are being reminded of this rule by Counsel to the Inquiry Nicholas Moss KC.

This does not apply to the three little girls who were murdered, or to the three adults who survived.

All six of whom can be named.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the public inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall

I am sitting in the main council chamber at Liverpool Town Hall. It’s usually the venue for meetings for Liverpool City Council - but it’s been taken over by the Southport Inquiry for this week.

It’s a grand amphitheatre setting - rows of mahogany and leather seating and a platform where the Chair of the Inquiry Sir Adrian Fulford is overseeing proceedings.

When Sir Adrian opened the inquiry he called the Southport attack “one of the most egregious crimes in our country’s history."

For the rest of this week, we will be hearing testimony on behalf of the survivors of the attack.

The room is now filling up with lawyers who are representing the various organisations involved in the inquiry.

Image source, PA Media

The inquiry is taking place in the council chamber at Liverpool Town Hall.

The room is beginning to fill with those connected to today's witnesses.

The hearing was due to start at 11.00 BST.

We will first hear from the parents of child C6 and child T followed by Jonathan Hayes.

The grandfather had been working in the office next door to where the attack happened.

He was stabbed in the leg as he tried to take hold of the knifeman's weapon.

Image source, Handout

The mother of one of the girls who survived the Southport attack said she did not doubt "for one moment" that the actions of Leanne Lucas and Heidi Liddle, who were running the class, had helped saved lives when they encouraged children to escape.

But she added: "The uncomfortable and often unspoken truth of our own reality is that, when the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself.

"It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day."

Jonny Humphries

Image source, Handout

Through their lawyers, the families of the three murdered girls have called on the inquiry to spark "real change".

While the inquiry can do nothing to "change the unimaginable loss" of the families, the director of the Bond Turner law firm Rachael Wong and the families' solicitor, Chris Walker, said in a joint statement: "We all now have a responsibility to ensure that something like this never happens again...

"It is only through intense public scrutiny that real change can be effected."

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Three young girls were killed in the attack - Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.

The bereaved families' solicitor, Christopher Walker, said: "My clients, the three bereaved families, hope the inquiry will leave no stone unturned in establishing the facts around what led to this day.

"As both the chair and the prime minister have said, Southport must be a line in the sand, and this inquiry must lead to change.

"We already know that the attack was preventable. What is important to establish now is how and why."

Jonny Humphries

Image source, PA Media

The first oral hearings in the Southport Inquiry began in July with statements from the victims of some of the surviving girls.

One of those victims, referred to as C1, was stabbed 33 times after the perpetrator pulled her back into the building as she tried to flee.

Her mother said the "most painful of truths" about the attacks was that for the children inside the building there were "no adults" to help them.

Image source, PA Media

The first phase of the public inquiry into the Southport knife attack is due to resume in about half an hour's time at Liverpool Town Hall.

The inquiry is tasked with examining the background of Axel Rudakubana, the 18-year-old who is serving a minimum sentence of 52 years for murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July 2024.

We will subsequently refer to him by his initials, AR.

The inquiry will focus on his dealings with all of the relevant agencies, along with any missed opportunities to prevent what happened.