Mum of dance-loving girl, 9, killed in Southport attack speaks for first time

The mum of a nine-year-old girl stabbed to death in the Southport attack has described how she and her husband ‘had everything’ before their only daughter was murdered.

Alice da Silva Aguiar was killed alongside Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, was given a life sentence and ordered to serve a minimum term of 52 years after pleading guilty to the murders on the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

In her first media interview since the knife attack, Alice’s mother Alex Aguiar, 34, paid tribute to her daughter, who was said to love dancing, and had started baby ballet when she was 16 months old.

She told the Liverpool Echo she started attending Southport Dance Academy when she was four ‘and from then on Heidi (Liddle) was her ballet teacher’.

Heidi Liddle was one of the two adults, along with class instructor Leanne Lucas, present at the dance class when attacker Rudakubana entered the Hart Space on the small business estate on July 29, 2024.

Ms Aguiar said Alice did ballet every Saturday, as well as street dance, cheerleading at the YMCA, and singing with the school choir.

Outside of school, she said Alice would often spend her spare time with her and dad, Sergio.

Ms Aguiar said: ‘In the weekends we would spend time together, we would go to friends’ houses, go out for meals. We were always happy to be us three, we had everything so what else could we have asked for.’

She told the Echo the Southport community had been ‘incredible’ in supporting her and her husband in the aftermath of the attack and the loss of their daughter.

Now, Portuguese-born Ms Aguiar said she sees Southport as her home.

‘Everyone has been incredible, people who don’t know us and we’re not from here and we’ve got so much help,’ she went on.

‘People have been very kind, wanting to help us, we didn’t expect that.

‘We feel at home, and we don’t feel like we have to go back.’

Over the past few months, Ms Aguiar has been focusing her efforts on projects to build a legacy for Alice, which she told the Echo she will be sharing in the coming months.

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