Merseyside Police mugshot of Axel Rudakubana, 18, who has pleaded guilty at (Image: PA)
I stared into the eyes of serial child killer Axel Rudakubana – and his twisted, manic smile will never leave me.
I was one of the first journalists to see Rudakubana face-to-face when he was hauled into Liverpool Youth Court on Thursday 1st August – three days after his horrific knife attack spree.
Reporters, court staff and police wanted to see what he looked like, how he acted, if he would admit his gruesome attack or speak.
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That morning he shuffled into the courtroom, in the same building as the Crown Court where this week he will be sentenced for admitting murdering Bebe, Elsie and Alice, and attacking eight other children and two adults who tried to defend them.
But his chilling air of amusement as he smirked was nothing to the look he gave me as he turned to peek at the reporters from behind the thick, glass-panelled dock of Court 3.6.
To Rudakubana the whole morning’s legal proceedings were amusing – maybe a nervous grin – but a broad smile lit up his face as he looked at me and my colleagues.
It was an unnerving smile of a 17 year-old boy who did not care, and was capable of anything. All of us were taken aback.
He was stood in a grey prison-issue tracksuit, wearing black slippers and for the rest of the short hearing – as they sent the matter immediately to the Crown Court and a senior judge that same afternoon – he just stared at the floor and refused to speak.
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Southport stabbings suspect Axel Rudakubana, 18 (Image: PA)
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Later that day he was back in a dock again, this time before Judge Andrew Menary who made the sensible decision that although Rudakubana was 17 years-old and cannot be named, as he turned 18 in a week and his actions had already sparked nationwide protests, he should be identified straight away.
Again for that hearing he shuffled into the dock but this time kept his face partially hidden during the whole legal proceedings, using the top of his sweater as a facemask.
On Thursday the heartbroken families of his young victims will be in court to see him face justice for his cruel crimes – and I hope he will not be smirking on that day.