LONDON

A UK court on Thursday handed 52 years in prison to Axel Rudakubana for the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last summer.

Axel Rudakubana killed three children and attempted to murder 10 others in Southport, a coastal town in Merseyside, in July 2024.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice Julian Goose said Rudakubana was "determined to disrupt the proceedings" so that he would not face the victims of his crimes and justice.

"It is difficult to comprehend" why Rudakubana carried out such extreme violence, he said.

The judge said Rudakubana "planned to kill as many as he could," adding that he "savagely killed" three of the children in over 15 minutes.

The judge said a whole-life order, which is harshest penalty that can be handed down in UK courts, cannot be given to Rudakubana as he was 17 when he committed the crimes.

However, he stressed that the murderer is likely to never be released.

Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were murdered in the stabbing attack by the British citizen born in Cardiff, Wales.