Southport survivor's family demands 'more answers'

The family of a girl who survived the Southport stabbings said "more questions need answering" about the attack in which three young children were murdered.

The girl, who can only be referred to Child C, was nine years old when knife-wielding Axel Rudakubana embarked upon what prosecutors described as a "meticulously planned campaign of murder and violence" at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.

Child C's family said she was continuing to recover from the 29 July attack, in which Rudakubana, then aged 17, also attempted to murder eight other children and two adults.

He was jailed for 52 years on Thursday after also admitting making the biological toxin ricin and illegally possessing an Al Qaeda training manual.

Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, aged nine, were killed in the attack.

Dance class leader Leanne Lucas and businessman Jonathan Hayes were seriously wounded.

At Thursday's sentencing hearing, Child C's words were read out at Liverpool Crown Court.

She said: "It has been very hard to deal with what happened.

"When people in school asked me 'Do you wish you weren't there that day?', I said that, in some ways, I wish I wasn't but also, if I wasn't there, someone else would have been stabbed and they could have died, so I'm glad I might have stopped someone else getting hurt."

Child C's family said: "It is undeniable that there remain more questions which need answering about how we got to this point.

"We hope that these will be answered in due course.

"For our daughter, and everyone else who was there that day, it is the least that they deserve."

Their statement continued: "Our hearts continue to ache for the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie.

"We are acutely aware of how incredibly lucky we are that our daughter is still with us."

Child C's family thanked everyone - including members of the emergency services and staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital - who had been involved in saving her life and helping her recovery.

"Words cannot express how grateful we will forever be to you," said the family in their statement, before adding that Child C "continues to make a good recovery".

"She remains the positive, funny, determined, caring girl she always was. She is our warrior."

They added that the attack "will not define her" and appealed for privacy "while we as a family try to come to terms with the events of 29 July".

Following Rudakubana's guilty pleas on Monday, the government announced a public inquiry.

The court heard Rudakubana had been referred three times to anti-extremism programme Prevent in 2019 - when he researched American school shootings during an IT class - and twice in 2021, for uploading images of former Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi to Instagram and for researching the 2017 London Bridge terror attack.

In 2019, he also contacted the Childline charity and asked: "What should I do if I want to kill somebody?"

On Thursday, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court that Rudakubana had booked a taxi later that year to take him to his former school, where he used a hockey stick to attack another pupil.

Police then found a kitchen knife in his backpack.

He then pleaded guilty to assault, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a bladed article.

Rudakubana was also reported missing in 2022 before he was found by police in possession of a small kitchen knife.

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed that he had been under its care between 2019 and 2023, when he "stopped engaging" with them.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.