British police charge 17-year-old with murder in stabbing that killed 3 girls
London — Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned British police chiefs for a crisis meeting on Thursday over violent unrest that followed a stabbing attack that left three young girls dead. A 17-year-old suspect appeared in court to face three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder.
The attack on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem. The deaths have also been used by far-right activists to stoke anger at immigrants and Muslims - though the suspect isn't an immigrant and his religion hasn't been disclosed.
Police say the suspect as born in Britain. He hasn't been charged with terrorism offenses but faces three counts of murder over the deaths of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the seaside town of Southport in northwest England.
He's also been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder over eight children and two adults who were injured. Several of the victims remain in critical condition.
The suspect made a brief appearance at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning. He wasn't asked to enter a plea and was ordered detained until his next hearing, scheduled for later in the day.
Police haven't disclosed a motive for the crime, but other new details emerged during his first court appearance.
The alleged murder weapon was a kitchen knife with a curved blade, according to an additional charge he faces. It was also revealed that the suspect is just a week shy of becoming an adult, when he turns 18.
Because of that, a judge later allowed his name to be released -- Axel Rudakubana.
The suspect, wearing a gray tracksuit, smiled briefly at reporters before sitting down in the courtroom. He then pulled his sweatshirt above his nose and held his head low during the brief hearing. He didn't speak.
Neither the teen's parents nor family members of victims were in court.
Far-right demonstrators - fueled, in part, by online misinformation - have held several violent protests, ostensibly in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday and causing a melee near the prime minister's office in London the next evening.
Starmer's office said he would tell police leaders that "while the right to peaceful protest must be protected at all costs, he will be clear that criminals who exploit that right in order to sow hatred and carry out violent acts will face the full force of the law."
A few hundred protesters hurled beer cans and flares near Starmer's office on Downing Street in central London. More than 100 people were arrested for offenses including violent disorder and assault on an emergency worker, London's Metropolitan Police force said.
Police also faced violent demonstrators in the town of Hartlepool in northeast England as far-right groups seek to stir anger over an attack they have sought to link - without evidence - to immigrants.
Hours earlier, residents of Southport swept shattered glass and broken bricks from streets after far-right protesters clashed with police in the seaside town.
On Tuesday night, a crowd of several hundred people hurled bricks and bottles at riot police there, set garbage bins and vehicles on fire and looted a store, hours after a peaceful vigil for the girls were killed. More than 50 officers were injured, including more than two dozen who were taken to hospitals, officials said.
"I am absolutely appalled and disgusted at the level of violence that was shown towards my officers," Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said. "Some of the first responders who attended that awful scene on Monday ... then were faced with that level of violence."
Five men have been arrested in connection with the riots in Southport, mainly for violent disorder; one was arrested for possessing a knife and fighting. Kennedy said more arrests were expected.
Starmer condemned the "thuggery" and said the protesters "hijacked" the community's grief.
Norman Wallis, chief executive of the Southport Pleasureland amusement park, was one of dozens of people who turned up with brushes and shovels to clear the debris.
"It's horrendous what those hooligans have done last night," he said. "But none of those people were the people of Southport," he added. "The people of Southport are the ones here today cleaning the mess up."
Misinformation's apparent role
The protesters, who police said were supporters of the far-right English Defence League, were apparently fueled by false online rumors about the suspect.
Police said a name circulating on social media - spread by far-right activists and accounts of murky origin purporting to be news organizations - was incorrect and that he was born in Britain, contrary to online claims he was an asylum-seeker. The names of suspects under the age of 18 are usually not made public in Britain.
Patrick Hurley, the local lawmaker, said the violence by "beered-up thugs" was the result of "propaganda and lies" spread on social media.
"This misinformation doesn't just exist on people's internet browsers and on people's phones. It has real world impact," he said.
Chanaka Balasuryla, whose corner store was looted for booze and cigarettes, said he watched from home on a surveillance camera as a gang broke in. He was terrified because a woman and her daughter lived upstairs and he feared the looters would set the shop on fire.
He learned later that the woman had confronted the mob and told them the Windsor Mini Mart was her shop and asked them to stop. The next morning he went get down to his shop were people waiting to help him clean up.
"I feel safe again because people are here to protect us," he said.
Knife crime a growing British concern
The rampage in Southport is the latest shocking attack in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons, by far the most commonly used instruments in U.K. homicides.
Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood in the mayhem outside the Hart Space, a community center that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops to women's boot camps.
Joel Verite, a window cleaner riding in a van on his lunch break, said his colleague slammed on the brakes and reversed to where a woman was hanging on the side of a car covered in blood.
"She just screamed at me: 'He's killing kids over there. He's killing kids over there,'" Verite told Sky News.
"It was like a scene you'd see on a disaster film," he said. "I can't explain to you how horrific it is what I saw."
Britain's worst attack on children was in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 kindergartners and their teacher in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The United Kingdom subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns.
While knives are used in about 40% of homicides each year, mass stabbings are unusual.
Taylor Swift weighs in
Swift posted a message on social media Tuesday expressing her sympathy.
"The horror of yesterday's attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I'm just completely in shock," Swift wrote. "The loss of life and the innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families."
By Tuesday morning, a group of Swift's fans had raised the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars to support the victims of the attack and their families, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.
-- Haley Ott contributed reporting