'I was stabbed in the Southport attack - the injuries have changed my life forever'

A victim who was stabbed in the Southport attack last year thought she would die after sustaining horrific injuries that have changed her life “forever”. Speaking to Channel 4’s documentary One Day in Southport, the girl - who stays anonymous in the programme due to a court order protecting her identity - opened up about the stabbings at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July.

She was making bracelets at the workshop with her younger sister when 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana burst into the Hart Space in Southport and began attacking children. Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died from their injuries.

“I saw [Rudakubana] walk in with his face mask and hood up and he stabbed a girl multiple times. I thought it was a joke,” the survivor said in Channel 4’s documentary. “He seemed like he was possessed by something. He came for me and all the girls were screaming. He stabbed my arm and I turned and that’s when he stabbed my back.

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“I got onto the landing and saw some girls huddling around the stairs, looking like they didn’t know what to do. I started screaming at them to run and get down the stairs. They got themselves out of the building - I’m so proud of every single one of them.

“My vision was going blurry and I ran across to this guy and I said to him, ‘I’ve been stabbed, I think I’m dying.’”

The child’s father tells the programme that he ran into the class to find his daughters. “That’s when I was confronted with sights and smells that I never really want to relive,” he said.

His daughter sustained serious injuries from the stabbing. “One of the paramedics cuts off her hoodie and it just looked like her muscles were inside out. At the time, we didn’t know that it had caught part of her spine and it had gone through and punctured the lungs,” he said.

Breaking down, the child says that she wishes she could have helped victim Alice, who died in hospital the following day.

“I didn’t see Alice in all the madness that was going on. I regret every day that I wasn’t able to get it out and that I wasn’t able to help her,” she says.

Sharing her victim impact statement with the documentary, the anonymous child said that she’s “living with the consequences” of Rudakubana’s actions every day - and requires special adaptions at school due to her injuries.

“I felt lonely with no one my age to talk to about it. I have to have a special chair in school because the usual chairs dig into my scars,” she said. “I have to have time out of lessons because my mind wanders back to that day and I can’t focus.

“I want you to know that you’ve changed mine and my sister’s lives forever and while you live behind bars alone, I’ll make sure that my sister and I and our family do our best to move forward with our lives. I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward.”

Rudakubana was sentenced to a whole life prison term with a minimum of 52 years in January for the murders of three young girls.

One Day in Southport is available to stream on Channel 4.

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