Parents of Southport stabbings victims pay tribute to daughters – and describe moment they were told ‘something awful has happened’
The parents of two of the girls murdered at a dance class in Southport have spoken of the moment they were told “something awful has happened” to their children.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the parents of Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe paid tribute to their daughters, while recalling what happened on 29 July 2024.
Warning: Some readers may find this article distressing
Describing the moment she dropped her daughter off at the two-hour workshop at Hart Space studio, Jenni Stancombe said she watched Elsie run inside, excited to show her friend her newly pierced ears.
“I watched her sit down and waved her off and I left her,” she said.
Just before midday, Ms Stancombe got a call from another mother, telling her: “Something awful has happened. Somebody’s stabbed the kids.
“I said, ‘What do you mean?'” Ms Stancombe said. “She went, ‘It’s really bad. You need to get here’.
“I just ran. I left the whole house open and got in the car.”
Bebe King’s parents – who cannot be named for legal reasons – had been busily preparing for a wedding the following day.
Her mother remembers being in Marks & Spencer when she received a phone call from her husband, who had arrived early to collect Bebe.
“I was about to put my card in the machine, and he called. ‘I can’t believe I’m telling you this but somebody has gone into the dance class with a knife’,” she said.
She ran outside and jumped into a taxi. The driver dropped her off at the end of the street – “and I just ran”.
Parents’ tributes to children
Bebe’s parents came up with her name after a trip to Hollywood, where they saw the blues guitarist BB King’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bebe King’s mother said of her daughter: “She would come out with the most random stuff. She would do it and look at you and laugh as if to say, ‘I’m dead funny, aren’t I?’ She would give you this hug and say, ‘I love you, momma’.
“She was the best. She was just … Me and her had our own little language. Sometimes we would just look at each other and know what each other was thinking.”
She said Bebe “had this innate kindness. She had a spark”.
Alice Da Silva Aguiar also died at the dance class
The last photo of Alice taken the day of the Taylor Swift dance class
Ms Stancombe said it was an honour to be Elsie’s mother. “Everything she did was pure enthusiasm. It could be the most boring thing – even, like, David taking the bins out – and it was like, ‘I’ll come!’ She was grateful for life.”
She described her daughter as “highly intelligent” but said she struggled with reading and writing. Leanne Lucas, who ran the dance workshop, had been Elsie’s private tutor for 18 months.
She had originally missed out on a spot at the dance workshop, which had quickly sold out. One of her school friends was going to the class and her mother messaged Ms Stancombe saying, “Have you got her a space?”
“And I was like, “Oh no’. I knew it had sold out, so I messaged Leanne saying, ‘Aw, I totally forgot to pay for Elsie’. And she messaged saying: ‘No problem. I’ll always have a place for Elsie.’ And she kept one. I just always think if she’d given it away…”
The horse-drawn carriage that carried the coffin of Elsie Dot Stancombe waits outside St John’s Church in Birkdale.
Pic: PA
Rioting in Southport
The families were told to come off their social media accounts after riots broke out in Southport, and Elsie’s father and uncle Chris visited the wreckage of the riots the following day.
Neither wanted to comment on the rioting that followed their children’s deaths. Instead, both families paid tribute to the community that rallied around them in the wake of the tragedy.
“It’s about this community. It has brought light in the darkness, these little moments. And that’s what we’re constantly looking for right now.”
Elsie’s funeral. Pic: PA
Bebe’s family spent the following week with her in a bereavement suite at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. On the last day, her mother and father did a final bedtime routine, reading her Jack and the Beanstalk before they left.
No funeral director would accept money, while donations and support flooded in for the families.
Bebe had a white horse and carriage. “It’s not very us,” her parents told the Sunday Times while laughing, “but it was for her and we knew she would want that.”
Royal Family brought ‘genuine comfort’
The efforts of the Royal Family brought “genuine comfort” to both families, they told the Sunday Times.
Mr Stancombe said the visit by the Princess of Wales – her first public engagement since finishing chemotherapy – “meant a great deal to Jenni”.
The Prince and Princess of Wales visited Southport. Pic: PA
“I won’t say what they said to us, but what they shared with us was really, really powerful, and it was a powerful message and heartfelt, and it meant a lot,” he said.
The families also met the King at Clarence House in August.
“We could see how much he cared,” Mr Stancombe said, laughing about the moment Elsie’s sister offered the King a biscuit.
The King visited Southport. Pic: PA
‘Highly likely’ killer will never be released
Axel Rudakubana was jailed in January for a minimum term of 52 years after he pleaded guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe, six, and Elsie, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
Rudakubana also admitted trying to murder eight other children, as well as instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, on 29 July last year.
He was 17 years old when he walked into the dance studio, indiscriminately stabbing his victims with a 20cm blade he had bought on Amazon.
He was given 13 life sentences, with Mr Justice Goose saying the killings had caused “shock and revulsion” around the nation and said it was “highly likely” he would never be released.
Axel Rudakubana. Pic: Merseyside police
Read more:
The 14 minutes of terror that left three children dead
Family of Rudakubana ‘moved to secret location’
During sentencing he was twice ordered out of the dock after trying to disrupt proceedings, by shouting that he “felt ill”.
The court heard emotional statements from victims and families, with Ms Lucas who was stabbed in the back, saying she couldn’t give herself “compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died?”.
The incident was not labelled a terror attack, although officers later found a plastic box containing the toxin ricin under his bed in the village of Banks, Lancashire, along with other weapons including a machete and arrows.
His devices revealed an obsession with violence, war and genocide, and he was found to be in possession of an al Qaeda training manual. It fell outside the definition of terrorism because police couldn’t identify the killer’s motive.
Families did not want sentencing televised
Neither family was in court when Rudakubana suddenly changed his plea to guilty.
Both families did not want the sentencing televised, while Bebe’s family believe details about her injuries went beyond what was necessary.
“The sentencing shouldn’t have been televised,” Elsie’s uncle Chris says. Bebe’s father agreed: “We know it has to be heard in court but why did the whole nation need to see it on television?”
Post Office vans following the hearse carrying Elsie’s coffin. Pic: PA
Both talked about their struggle to adapt to a new life without their daughters. Mr Stancombe worked as a postman – he described how he would drop the post off at Elsie’s school and she would run over at lunchtime with her friends to say hello.
None of the parents have gone back to work yet, but Mr and Ms Stancombe have set up a charity – Elsie’s Story, to help other children in need.
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It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
Politics latest: Follow live updates
Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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