By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
LONDON/LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -A British teenager on Monday unexpectedly pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event last July, an atrocity that triggered days of nationwide rioting.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, surprised the judge, prosecutors and police by admitting he had carried out the killings in the northern English town of Southport, making the trial that was about to start at Liverpool Crown Court unnecessary.
He also pleaded guilty to 10 charges of attempted murder relating to the attack, as well as to producing the deadly poison ricin and possessing an al Qaeda training manual.
After his conviction, British media reported Rudakubana had previously tried to attack former classmates at a school from which he had been expelled for carrying a knife. They said he had been referred to a counter-radicalisation scheme, but no action had been taken.
“It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence,” said Ursula Doyle from the Crown Prosecution Service. “He has shown no signs of remorse.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the case was “a moment of trauma for the nation when there are grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls”.
Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the incident, initially refused to speak when asked to confirm his name, as he had at all previous hearings, which meant that “not guilty” pleas had been entered on his behalf in December.
But after consulting with his lawyer, he admitted murdering Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, who were at the summer vacation event.
Doyle said he had carried out a “meticulously planned rampage” as innocent children enjoyed a carefree dance workshop and made friendship bracelets.
Judge Julian Goose said he would sentence Rudakubana on Thursday and that a life sentence was inevitable.
ANTI-IMMIGRANT RIOTS SPARKED ACROSS BRITAIN
Rudakubana, who was born in Britain, was arrested shortly after the attack in the quiet seaside town north of Liverpool. Despite finding the al Qaeda manual, police had said the incident was not being treated as terrorism-related, and his motive remains unknown.
In the wake of the murders, large disturbances broke out in Southport after false reports spread on social media that the suspect was a radical Islamist migrant.
The unrest spread across Britain with attacks on mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Starmer blamed far-right thuggery and more than 1,500 people were arrested.
The Guardian newspaper reported that Rudakubana, the son of devout Christians who had moved to Britain from Rwanda, had been referred three times to Prevent, a government scheme that aims to counter radicalisation.
It said there had been concerns that he was looking at online material about U.S. school massacres and past terrorist attacks. But he was not judged to be a terrorism risk, the paper said.
There was no immediate comment from Britain’s interior ministry.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Kate Holton and Alex Richardson)
