Judith Moritz
Reporting from Liverpool Crown Court

The courtroom has now filled up, and there isn’t a spare seat.

The families of some of the children who were attacked by Axel Rudakubana are present, and there are rows of journalists.

Such is the demand for seating for this hearing, there’s also an overflow annexe court which is equally full of reporters and members of the public watching via video link.

Rudakubana hasn’t entered the dock yet, but is expected to arrive shortly.

Our team inside the court in Liverpool tell us there are still a few people to arrive before today's hearing can begin.

Once the legal teams are assembled, and things get under way, we'll let you know.

As we said in our last post, the only part of today's proceedings that will be filmed are the judge's sentencing remarks - we'll flag when those are available to watch live.

The updates we bring you before then will come from our reporters at the hearing.

Today's sentencing hearing of Axel Rudakubana of Banks, Lancashire, is taking place at Liverpool Crown Court and begins shortly.

Our reporters are in court to bring you the key lines in this page.

The judge will deliver sentencing remarks later in the day and you'll be able to watch those live at the top of this page. We'll let you know when that's available.

First we'll hear outlines of the case from the prosecution and then from Rudakubana's defence team. As a reminder, this page will contain distressing details.

Image source, PA Media

Sean Seddon and Ian Aikman
Live reporters

Image source, PA Media

By the time Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls, the teenager was well known to police, anti-extremism authorities and a number of other public agencies.

But despite concerns about Rudakubana's obsession with violence, there was only ever limited intervention.

The first serious signs came when he was in year nine at Range High School in Formby, Merseyside. His time there ended in October 2019 when he took a knife into school.

Rudakubana did not use the knife then, but he was permanently expelled from the school, where he returned about two months later with a hockey stick and attacked another child.

Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said he failed to "re-integrate" into education after his exclusion, a situation "exacerbated by the pandemic". And Lancashire Constabulary had "several" further interactions with the teenager between October 2019 and May 2022.

On 22 July last year - a week before the Southport attacks - he booked a taxi to return to the school, but his father pleaded with the taxi driver not to take him.

Rudakubana also came to the attention of the government's anti-extremism Prevent programme because he had expressed an interest in school shootings, the London Bridge attack, the IRA, MI5 and the Middle East. He was referred to Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021 over concerns about his interest in violence.

His search history revealed an interest in Nazi Germany, ethnic violence in Somalia and Rwanda, and slavery.

The government has announced a public inquiry into Rudakubana's case, to establish what went wrong and consider the wider issue of rising youth violence and extremism.

Daniel Sandford
Home affairs correspondent

Sometimes people convicted of the very worst murders are given what is called a whole life order. That is a life sentence, with an order that the murderer should never be released from prison.

Two reasons judges are given for imposing a whole life order are "the murder of a child involving a substantial degree of premeditation or planning" and "the murder of two or more people involving a substantial degree of planning".

On those grounds Axel Rudakubana’s horrific crimes - the murder of three girls under the age of 10 - and the attempted murder of eight other girls and two adults, all planned, would almost certainly qualify for a whole life order.

But under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 a whole life order can only be given to someone who was aged 18 or over when they committed the crime.

Even then, one can only be given to someone under the age of 21 when they committed the offence when the "seriousness of the offence is exceptionally high".

So Rudakubana, who was 17 when he committed the murders, will have to be given a life sentence with a "minimum term" before he can be released by the Parole Board on licence. His minimum term is likely to be measured in decades, but the case is so unusual it is hard to predict.

It used to be that nobody under the age of 21 could be given a life sentence.

But then when Hashem Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomber's brother, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 55 years, the judge said a whole life order "would have been the just sentence in this case bearing in mind the exceptional seriousness of his offending, including the young age of many of the intended targets and the large number of those both killed and very seriously injured".

That led to the law being changed in 2022, reducing the minimum age to 18.

Axel Rudakubana missed that by nine days. He committed the crimes aged 17 on 29 July last year - and turned 18 on 7 August.

Image source, PA Media

On Monday, Axel Rudakubana was was facing a four-week trial - but at the last minute changed his pleas, and admitted 16 charges:

• The murder of three girls on 29 July 2024: Alice da Silva Aguiar, aged nine; Bebe King, six; and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe
• The attempted murder of 10 people on the same day: they include eight children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and two adults - Leanne Lucas and John Hayes
• Possession of a knife on the day of the stabbings
• Production of a biological toxin, ricin, on or before 29 July
• Possession of terrorist material - namely a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual - which he had between 29 August 2021 and 30 July 2024

The ricin and the PDF were found after the attack, during searches of Rudakubana’s home.

Image source, PA/Merseyside Police

Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls while they attended a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport last July. They were:

Elsie Dot Stancombe

The seven-year-old was described by her family as "extraordinary" and an "amazing little girl".

Elsie's family said she "spent every day just simply enjoying life with determination, persistence, love and kindness". They added that Elsie, a "devoted Swiftie", brought "light, love and joy to so many lives".

Alice da Silva Aguiar

She was described by her family as their "perfect dream child" who loved animals and "moved our world" with her "confidence and empathy".

Speaking at the nine-year-old's funeral, they said she was "born and raised into love" and enjoyed cuddling her parents in their bedroom and watching television with popcorn.

Bebe King

The six-year-old was described by her parents as a "sweet, kind, and spirited girl" who was "full of joy, light and love".

Rudakubana also admitted the attempted murder of ten other people, including eight children who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The two adults he attempted to murder were Leanne Lucas, 35, who was leading the dance class, and businessman John Hayes, who was one of the first people on the scene.

Welcome to our live coverage of the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport in July last year.

The hearing at Liverpool Crown Court will start at 11:00, and our reporters in court will bring you the key details on this page.

The sentencing itself will start later this afternoon, which you'll be able to watch on this page.

Image source, EPA