Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder on Monday, the first day of his trial for the shooting at a dance hall last July in Southport, England, which led to three a child died and 10 people were injured.
Mr. Rudakubana meets us convicted of murder for the deaths of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, who attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance and bracelet-making class during their summer break from school paper.
He was also charged with trying to kill 10 people, including eight children and two adults, and having weapons for the attack on July 29.
After the stabbings, police investigated Mr. Rudakubana’s house and said they found ricin, a deadly chemical, and a PDF document titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual.” Mr. Rudakubana is then pay with the production of toxic chemicals and with “having information of any kind that may be useful to a terrorist or terrorist organization.”
On Monday, Mr. Rudakubana, who initially pleaded not guilty, appeared in court and pleaded guilty to all charges against him.
Authorities have not yet declared the incident a crime. Serena Kennedy, chief executive of Merseyside Police, which oversees policing in the region, said in a statement in October that “for a problem to be declared as a terrorist incident, motivation must be established.” He added, “We would advise caution to anyone who thinks there might be motivation for this.”
The trial took place at Liverpool Crown Court and was initially expected to last four weeks, but there are now plans to sentence Mr. Rudakubana on Thursday.
Mr. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to parents who are originally from Rwanda. He was living in Banks, a village north of Southport, at the time of the attack.
Last week, Britain’s attorney general, Richard Hermer, announced an official advisory warn users of social media and journalists about the danger of insulting the court and warn that the wrong or the suggestion can affect the jury judicial decision. Everything that acknowledges or thinks that Mr. Rudakubana’s guilt could lead to criminal activity, he warned.
After the Southport attack, Britain was rocked by violent attacks, as false information about the attacker’s identity swirled on social media and messaging apps. False claims that the suspect is an undocumented immigrant or newly arrived asylum seeker have been spread by anti-immigration activists and members of the far-right .
Many people, Including neo-Naziswas later found to have helped control the spread of the conflict, which included attacks on mosques and hotels where asylum seekers were staying, and which injured many police officers.
Mr. Rudakubana was 17 years old at the time of the attack and, under English court law, she would normally keep her name anonymous until she was 18. But a few days after the attack, the judge decided to leave his name out in one. try to combat the spread of misinformation.
Since the violence last summer, hundreds of people have been living cost for their participation in violence throughout the country, and many people have been imprisoned.
Yvette Cooper, the British home secretary, said in a statement on Monday morning that the trial would be “a sad and emotional time for the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie, survivors, and the people of Southport and the whole country.”
“The most important thing for all of us is to ensure that the legal system can do its job, to do the difficult job that the court has to do to ensure justice Justice and justice can be achieved,” he added.