Southport killer Axel Rudakubana's church-going dad who stopped 'school massacre plot'

Axel Rudakubana was just 17 when he knifed three young girls to death and tried to murder eight more children in an appalling attack. Just days before the murder in Southport, his father Alphonse is said to have thwarted another 'attempt to kill'

Axel Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday for the sickening triple murder of three young girls that shocked the nation.

The 18-year-old killer pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to the July 29 killing of Elsie Dot Stancombe, nine, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, seven, in court on Monday, and to a further 13 more charges relating to the incident. The teenager also admitted attempting to murder eight children and two adults, producing the biological toxin ricin and possessing a terrorist document.

Rudakubana grew up in Cardiff before his family relocated to the village of Banks, a few miles outside the Merseyside seaside town of Southport, when he was 11. One neighbour in the Welsh capital described the killer's parents to the Mirror as "an ordinary couple struggling to make a go of things here".

"They just seemed a normal family," they said. "They were very quiet. Dad would say 'hello and how are you?', that sort of thing." Dad was Alphonse, a "hard working" taxi driver with a passion for martial arts. The cabbie told his local newspaper in Southport he had moved to the UK from East Africa in 2002. His home country, Rwanda, suffered a deadly genocide in the early 1990s, with 800,000 people slaughtered in just 100 days.

At the time of the murder, the church-going family were living in a £170,000 three bedroom terraced house in Banks. Having relocated from Wales in 2013, Alphonse continued with his passion for martial arts and a profile in The Southport Visiter confirmed he had trained with local clubs.

Rudakubana's mother used to work in administration at Cardiff University's school of dentistry and went onto become a stay at home mum to two boys. The killer's older brother was described by neighbours in Cardiff as "boisterous" when compared to his sibling's quieter, "more clingy" demeanour.

The future killer was expelled from school around 2019 after reportedly telling ChildLine he was being racially bullied and was planning to carry a knife into school. Diagnosed with autism, the troubled teenager is believed to have returned to Range High School in Formby to assault a pupil with a hockey stick.

The troubled youngster went onto attend two specialist schools, where he concerned teachers with his behaviour and recorded very low attendance. He was referred to the Government's Prevent anti-terrorism scheme on three separate occasions.

The reclusive killer ventured out a week before he stabbed three innocent children to death, booking a taxi back to his old school using the name Simon. It was on the last day of term for the secondary school in July when the expelled pupil tried to reach it, armed with a large kitchen knife.

Neighbours in Banks saw Alphonse rush out of the house to stop him. Rudakubana returned inside after a long discussion with his father, who is said to have pleaded with his fellow taxi driver not to take him.

Days later, the killer would book a taxi under his own name this time, wearing the same hoody and surgical mask. It took him to the Taylor Swift dance class at The Hart Space, where he would carry out his sickening murders.

Since the attack, his family has gone into hiding and leaders of The Community Church in Southport, which the family attended, said Alphonse had been a 'valued part' of the group.

Distancing themselves from the actions of his son, a statement to the Daily Mail read: "For the sake of clarity, Alphonse's son has never attended our Sunday gatherings, nor played any active part in church life.

"As a consequence we have nothing further to say other than the detail given in this statement.

"The Rudakubana family have been devastated following this terrible incident and they have been moved by the police, for their protection, from their home in Banks to a secret location that we are unaware of and we have had no contact with them since Axel was arrested and charged."