Southport attack: Mother saw CCTV of daughter being 'dragged back into building' - before being stabbed 20 more times

The mother of a girl who escaped the Southport attack before being dragged back inside has told how her daughter is still fighting to survive.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, stabbed the girl, referred to as C1 at the public inquiry, a total of 33 times at a Taylor Swift-themed class in the Merseyside coastal town on 29 July last year.

She was one of eight children injured, while Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were murdered in what inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford called "one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history".

The girl, then aged seven, ran out of the Hart Space building after being attacked, but Rudakubana was seen dragging her back inside in CCTV footage played during his sentencing hearing, which drew gasps in court, before she was stabbed 20 more times.

Reading an emotional statement at Liverpool Town Hall on Wednesday, her mother said: "That is how she became known in this nightmare. The girl that was dragged back in."

She thanked the teachers who escaped to call police and flag down help but said "the most painful of truths for" her and the girl's father "is that there were no adults to help during both of her attacks".

"She was only supported by other children. The courage and strength she found leaves me crushed, but in complete awe," she said.

Read more: Southport inquiry as it happened

The mother said she wanted to share her "beautiful, articulate, fun-loving" little girl's story, adding: "I want to tell you of her bravery and strength and how hard she is fighting, still now to survive."

She added: "It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day."

The mother said the "hours and days that followed the attack were a living hell" and her daughter's memories - including a concert of her "idol" Taylor Swift - have "been forfeited to make space for the trauma that she carries".

"We tell her she was brave. How proud we are that she was able to help other girls. How her strength makes us feel strong. How important what she did that day was. She is her own hero. She may be a survivor of this attack, but she is still trying to survive this, every single day," she said.

The surviving victims and their families have been granted anonymity during the inquiry, while the chairman has asked media not to use Rudakubana's police mugshot to avoid distressing them.

'She is our hero'

The father of a girl referred to as C3 told how his daughter was the first to escape the scene by running from the building and hiding behind a parked car before jumping through an open car door.

"Our nine-year-old daughter was stabbed three times in the back by a coward she didn't even see," he said.

"Although she didn't know what was happening - she knew she had to run. She ran out of the studio door, down the stairs, and out of the building."

He said she can be seen "looking scared, confused and pained" in CCTV footage of the incident, adding: "It was troubling for us to see what she had to go through, before either of her parents had arrived at the scene."

"We are so thankful and proud that despite being critically injured, she was able to make the decisions she did in that terrible moment," he said.

The girl's father said his daughter "continues to astound" them with the way she dealt with the attack and her recovery, saying: "It has been inspiring for us to witness."

He said she has difficulty sleeping, experiences flashbacks, looks over her shoulder scanning for potential danger when she leaves the house, has a fear of loud noises and has to turn off some songs when they come on the radio.

"Our daughter knows that she is loved," he said.

"It is through this support and love that she will continue to thrive. We couldn't be prouder of her. She is our hero."

Attack 'changed everything'

The mother of a girl referred to as C8 said she was "like any other seven-year-old little girl", "with an incredible energy" and "full of life".

But in a statement read out by a legal representative, she said the attack last year "changed everything" when she got a "panicked phone call" from a friend's mother, who couldn't find the girls.

"That moment, the sound of fear in her voice and the panic I felt will never leave me," she said.

"I rushed to the scene and what I saw is something no parent should ever see. My daughter had sustained serious physical injuries including a stab wound to her arm and a cut to her face and chin."

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She said her daughter "remembers the attack vividly" and later told her "she thought it had to be fake, because she couldn't believe something that terrible could really be happening".

"Where she was once eager to go off with her friends, she now needs my support if it is somewhere public or unknown," she said.

"Simple days out now need a level of safety planning that we would never have considered before."

'Constant flashbacks'

The mother of a girl referred to as Q, who was one of 15 children who escaped without physical injuries, told how she arrived to collect her daughter to find "children running from the building, screaming and fearing for their lives".

In a statement read to the inquiry by a legal representative on her behalf, she said it was "the most horrific experience of my life".

"What I saw on that day will stick with me forever, I constantly have flashbacks and relive what happened," she said.

She said her daughter has become "very withdrawn" since the attack and has asked her parents, "How will I ever be normal again?"

Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January and is being investigated over an alleged attack on a prison officer at Belmarsh prison in May.

The public inquiry, announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in January, is looking into whether the attack could or should have been prevented, given what was known about the killer.

Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, had contact with police, the courts, the youth justice system, social services and mental health services, and was referred to the government's anti-extremism Prevent scheme three times before the murders.

A rapid review into his contact with Prevent found his case should have been kept open and that he should have been referred to Channel, another anti-terror scheme.

C1's mother said: "She deserves the truth, she deserves accountability. She deserves an apology. Our girls deserve an apology.

"Backed up by the promise that changes will be made and this will not be allowed to happen again."

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