Range High School in Formby, Merseyside. (Image: Liverpool Echo)
Twisted child killer Axel Rudakubana may have been prevented from carrying out a school knife atrocity a week before launching his murderous Southport rampage – when his father raced from the family home and stopped him from driving away in a taxi whilst wearing his “death suit”.
The teen had just taken delivery of the deadly knives he had bought online when he booked a taxi from his home to whisk him to Range High School in Formby, where he had previously attended as a pupil.
It was the last day of term on Monday July 22nd and 1050 children were on site excitedly waiting for the start of the summer holidays.
Rudakubana, then aged 17, was dressed in a green hooded sweathshirt with the hood pulled up as well as having his face covered with a surgical mask when he booked a cab to arrive at his home at around 12.20pm.
Convicted killer Axel Rudakubana in school uniform (Image: Stock)
Don’t miss…
The school day was due to finish at 12.30pm meaning Rudakubana planned to arrive at the gates just as hundreds of pupils poured out of the comprehensive.
But just as the killer sat in the back of the cab waiting to be driven away, his Rawandian-born father Alphonse, 49, raced from the family home in Banks, Lancashire, and pleaded with the taxi-driver not to drive his son away.
A neighbour heard the commotion and said that the father had run out of the home and “begged” the taxi driver” not to drive away with his masked son in the back seat and an argument ensued before Rudakubana reluctantly excited the taxi and angrily returned into his home.
Seven days later on Monday July 29 the teen – wearing the same outfit and mask – caught another cab from his home address to take him to Southport where he brutally stabbed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, to death as they attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
Don’t miss…
The killer, now 18, who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, left Range High School in 2019, moving to a specialist school where he sat his GCSE exams and A-Levels.
One horrified parent with a teenage daughter attending Range High School said: “It is absolutely terrifying to think what could have happened had he arrived at the school armed with his knives. My daughter would have been leaving with her friends and it is just awful to think how close she may have come to becoming a victim.
“When the Southport stabbings happened the week after we were all shocked to the core – and our hearts go out to every relative and friend of those poor little girls – but when we found out that he may have been planning a previous attack on out children’s school my blood just ran cold.
“But it also begs the question why did nobody stop him then? What was known by his family and why exactly did his father stop the taxi driver from driving away?”
Undated handout photo issued by Merseyside Police of (left to right) six-year-old Bebe King, seven-y (Image: PA)
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Southport stabbings suspect Axel Rudakubana, 18, appearing (Image: PA)
Range High School in Formby, Merseyside. (Image: Liverpool Echo)
Rudakubana was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court today charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder.
He was also accused of two terror offences. Despite this, police are not treating the July 29 attack as terror-related.
But the teen dramatically pleaded guilty to all 16 charges against him in a surprise development that even the judge was not aware of.
Sadly, the victims’ families were not in court to see his plea as it was assumed the trial would officially open on Tuesday morning.