The 17-year-old boy accused of murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport has been named Axel Rudakubana.
Rudakubana is accused of murdering three children – Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – with a kitchen knife after breaking into a classroom in Hart Street, Southport, Merseyside, on Monday.
Lifting the anonymity order at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Andrew Menary KC said the unrest in parts of the country after the attack was one of the reasons why it was in the public interest for the suspect’s name to be published.
The judge said he would detain Rudakbana in a juvenile detention center and maintain the defendant’s anonymity risked “allowing other miscreants to continue spreading false information in isolation.”
The defendant is due to turn 18 on Wednesday and this could provide “a pretext for a new offence of public disorder”, the judge said.
During the hearing, Rudakbana covered his face with a sweatshirt and refused to speak, including confirming his name.
More details coming soon…
