Dance teacher shares her daily torment over Southport knife attack

THE devastated dance teacher who staged the Taylor Swift-themed dance class that was descended on by knife-wielding maniac Axel Rudakubana has revealed the daily torment she endures over the slaughter of three innocent young girls.

Leanne Lucas, 36, said: “How can I live knowing I survived when children died?”

The youth worker was in charge of 26 excited children attended the school holiday event in Southport that coincided with pop superstar’s Swift’s Era’s Tour mania sweeping the UK.

But as the youngsters eagerly made friendship bracelets on July 29 last year, the twisted teen intent on mass murder entered the building armed and randomly began attacking children and adults with a kitchen knife.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, perished in his assault whilst the monster attempted to kill eight other children, and businessman John Hayes.

In a harrowing victim impact statement Leanne, who was left seriously injured as she attempted to save the screaming children, told how the attack has “robbed her of her role, purpose and sense of trust in herself” and she no longer feels safe in public.

She said: “On that day, I received several injuries that have not only affected me physically but also mentally. I, as do the girls, have scars we cannot unsee, scars we cannot move on from.”

She described the trauma of being both a victim and a witness as “horrendous” but said she is “surviving” for the victims, telling the court “to discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible”.

Heidi Liddle, one of the class’s instructors, said she “felt completely helpless” after the attack because she “didn’t know how many children were hurt or where they were”.

In a statement read in court by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC, Ms Liddle said: “I felt isolated from everyone as I felt like I couldn’t leave my home. I was in tears constantly and didn’t feel safe in my own home.”

She told of replaying the attack “over and over” in her mind, saying she has since struggled with everyday activities.

The tearful father of a nine-year-old girl who was stabbed but survived, told of the impact the attack had on his daughter – but her incredible bravery.

Reading her words, he said: “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’.”

Her father said the words “both horrify us and make us immeasurably proud”, saying that his daughter is “everything that Axel Rudakabana is not”.

Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl who survived the attack, told the in person how the “day turned into a living nightmare”.

Reading her statement via video link, she said of Rudakabana: “The thing I remember most about you is your eyes. You didn’t look human, you looked possessed.”

She told of being stabbed in the arm and back and that all she could hear was screams.

The brave survivor added: “I was so scared of what you were doing and I was in a blind panic. I ran out onto the landing and there was a group of girls huddled and I began just screaming for the girls to get down the stairs.

“I remember I was physically pushing them down the stairs to get them out of the building and get away from you. I knew I was running for my life. I needed to try to get everyone out and to safety – that was my first thought.”

Describing the aftermath of the attack, the girl became emotional as she said: “Physically I’ve healed but my scars remain as a reminder of what you did to me, to us all.

“No sane person could do that. It’s sickening what you did, going in there knowing you’re going into a room full of defenceless children.

Addressing the killer, whose disruptive behaviour saw him removed from the courtroom, she said: “Give me a reason for what you did. Arming yourself with a weapon and stabbing children. I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing we think you’re a coward.”

A victim statement was also read from the first child who Rudakubana stabbed on entering the building.

The girl, aged 10 at the time, said she instantly thought of her family and decided: “I don’t want to die, I have got to get out of here”.

She added: “I think about all the other children that were there and I feel guilty that I wasn’t able to help the children that died and I think, ‘Was there anything I could have done to help them?’”