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Energy secretary and former Labour leader pledged to vote against expansion six years ago saying ‘we owe it to future generations not just to have good environmental principles but to act on them’
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Elizabeth Cook/PASouthport killer Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years for the “sadistic” murders of three young girls in an attack described as “shocking” and “pure evil”.
Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died while eight other children and two adults – dance class leader Leanne Lucas and businessman Jonathan Hayes – were seriously wounded.
The 18-year-old refused to come into the courtroom as he was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court, having been removed from the dock earlier due to disruptive behaviour – which included demands to see a paramedic and shouts of “I feel ill”.
Sentencing him, judge Mr Justice Goose said: “Many who have heard the evidence might describe what he did as evil, who could dispute it?”
Warning: This story will contain distressing details
Earlier, the details of Rudakubana’s crimes were laid out in court for the first time in graphic detail – including CCTV and dashboard camera footage from outside the Hart Space studios on Hart Street.
The court heard how, just after 11:45 BST on 29 July, Rudakubana moved through the sold-out dance workshop, organised by Ms Lucas, “systematically” stabbing young girls as they sat making friendship bracelets and singing along to Swift’s music.
Ms Heer also described how Rudakubana gloated about the attacks as he was escorted through Copy Lane police station after his arrest – saying he was “glad the children were dead”.
The teenager had booked a taxi to take him to Hart Street after leaving his home in Old School Close, Banks, west Lancashire, at 11:10 BST, the court was told.
Ms Heer played footage of Rudakubana asking the driver to point him to the address of the dance class – before getting out without paying.
The driver’s dashboard camera also captured Rudakubana walk up the stairs of the Hart Space building to the first-floor studio which had 26 children, Ms Lucas, and her colleague and friend Heidi Liddle inside.
Merseyside PoliceSeconds later, the sounds of screaming children filled the courtroom and the footage showed girls streaming out of the Hart Space dance studio.
The families of the victims cried in the public gallery as Ms Heer played footage of three of the girls staggering into the street and collapsing – including two of the survivors and Alice.
Unlike Bebe and Elsie Dot, Alice had managed to get out of the building despite her grave injuries, but collapsed by the car of a woman who had arrived to pick up her daughter.
Inside the studio, Bebe had been subjected to 122 knife wounds, while Elsie Dot had 85.
Ms Liddle and one other child were hiding in a locked toilet on a landing outside – Ms Liddle later describing how she realised that some of the children had not escaped when she heard them begging Rudakubana to stop.
The police arrived at Hart Street shortly before 11:59 BST – three officers and a member of the public, window-cleaner Joel Verite, charged up those stairs to find Rudakubana stood over the body of Bebe King holding a knife.
Police body-camera footage showed him tackled to the floor as Mr Verite shouted in utter shock and horror at the injuries he saw had been inflicted on Bebe.
A short time later Ms Liddle and the child hiding with her were seen sobbing in terror and relief as the police told them it was safe to emerge.
‘We were easy prey’
One of the survivors, a seven-year-old girl referred to as Child A, had been pulled back inside the building by Rudakubana as she tried to escape and was stabbed repeatedly, before managing to stagger into the street where she fell to the ground.
A statement written by the mother of Child A, read by Ms Heer, said her father had been “broken” by what happened to his daughter.
“Our daughter has not only experienced the most violent, frenzied attack on her body, but she’s witnessed so much horror too.”
The leader of the dance class, Ms Lucas, who read her statement in court, looked around the packed courtroom at the family members of fellow victims and survivors as she spoke.
She said: “He targeted us because we were women and girls, vulnerable and easy prey.
“To discover that he had always set out to hurt the vulnerable is beyond comprehensible.
“For Alice, Elsie, Bebe, Heidi and the surviving girls, I’m surviving for you.”
Victim impact statements were also read out by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC, in which the grieving families of two of the murder victims branded their daughters’ killer as “pure evil” whose actions have left them in “continuous pain”.
Stan Reiz KC, defending, told the court Rudakubana had appeared to have been a “normal child” until he reached 13.
Mr Reiz said: “There is no psychiatric evidence before the court that could suggest that a mental disorder contributed to the defendant’s actions.
“However, he did make a transition from a normal, well-disciplined child to someone who was capable of committing acts of such shocking and senseless violence.”
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mr Justice Goose said: “I am sure Rudakubana had the settled determination to carry out these offences and had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child – all 26 of them.”
Justice Goose confirmed the offences did not reach the legal definition of terrorism because he did not kill to further a political, religious or ideological cause.
However, he told the packed courtroom that whether the “motivation was terrorism or not misses the point”.
“What he did on the 29 July last year has caused such shock and revulsion to the whole nation, that it must be viewed as being at the extreme level of crime”, the judge said.
“His culpability, and the harm he caused and intended, were at the highest.”
Rudakubana was sentenced for three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder, one of producing the biological toxin ricin and one of possession of an Al Qaeda training manual, an offence under the Terrorism Act.
In a statement after the hearing, Elsie’s family offered their gratitude to the emergency services who responded to the incident.
“We are so thankful for their bravery, compassion and strength which should serve as an inspiration to everybody,” they said.
The family also thanked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, King Charles and the Prince and Princess of Wales for arranging private meetings where they offered their condolences.
Earlier, the prime minister said “the thoughts of the entire nation” were with the families of Rudakubana’s victims.
Sir Keir said: “I want to say directly to the survivors, families and community of Southport – you are not alone. We stand with you in your grief.
“What happened in Southport was an atrocity and as the judge has stated, this vile offender will likely never be released.
“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve.”
NewsBeat
Police investigation into Southport attack continues as officer reveals murderer was overheard making ‘disturbing’ remarks | UK News
A police investigation into the Southport attack is still active, a senior officer has said.
Rudakubana murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last summer in the Merseyside town, when he was 17 years old.
He was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years behind bars after pleading guilty to killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in July.
Merseyside Police’s detective chief inspector Jason Pye told Sky News’ national correspondent Tom Parmenter police have been unable to establish that Rudakubana followed any ideology, only that he was “obsessed with violence of all kinds”.
Axel Rudakubana. Pic: Merseyside Police
“All of the evidence that we found in relation to him shows that he was obsessed with violence,” he said.
“The planning shows that he was intent that day on going out to commit mass murder and everything else that we found shows that he has a real intent for violence.
“I suppose what we don’t know, because we’ve never found it, is the ideology. That’s just not there.”
Some of Rudakubana’s weapons. Pic: Merseyside Police
Pic: Merseyside Police
He added police also found no evidence to indicate anyone else had played a role in radicalising the now 18-year-old.
“It was more a suggestion that he was probably more socially isolated than being radicalised by anybody,” he said.
Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King.
Pic: Merseyside Police
Following a clip showing Rudakubana’s father trying to stop his son from entering a taxi which was going to head towards a high school the week before, the officer was asked what the input from the killer’s immediate family had been in the investigation.
“We still have a live investigation ongoing. So I’m unable to answer any questions in relation to the parents at this stage,” Det Chf Insp Pye said.
When pressed on what that meant, the officer added: “We have a live investigation ongoing, and that is something that we are still looking into.”
However, the officer said Rudakubana had made “disturbing” comments about his victims when he was overheard talking while in custody.
“The words that he said were really disrespectful to the families and those three little children,” he said.
“Very distasteful. It’s some of the worst things that I think I’ve ever heard as a detective.”
One of the country’s most senior counterterrorism officers, meanwhile, said that although the absence of an obvious motivation meant the killings had not met the legal definition of terrorism, “that does not make the horrendous acts any less terrifying or terrorising”.
Deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, senior national co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said: “The full weight of our collective investigative teams and the criminal justice system has been brought to bear to deliver this conviction.”
MPs have called for an urgent inquiry into the Labour Government’s decision not to compensate Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) women impacted by historic policy decisions.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for State Pension Inequality for Women has urged the Work and Pensions Committee to investigate the Government’s response to a damning ombudsman report.
This request follows the government’s acceptance of maladministration in communicating pension changes to 1950s-born women, despite its refusal to provide financial compensation.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) launched its investigation in 2018 to examine potential injustice which reportedly impacted 3.8 million older women.
In the investigation, the PHSO focused on whether these women suffered due to “maladministration” in how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) communicated state pension age changes.
Do you have a money story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing money@gbnews.uk.
MPs have launched an inquiry into Waspi women “injustice”
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The probe was specifically designed to determine if the DWP’s communication methods regarding the changes to women’s state pension age were adequate.
Following the report’s findings, the government acknowledged there had been maladministration in how changes were communicated, but rejected the PHSO’s proposed remedy. The Government subsequently confirmed it would not provide any financial compensation to women born in the 1950s.
As part of its inquiry, the APPG has now asked the Work and Pensions Committee to evaluate whether the government’s decision to withhold financial redress was justified.
Furthermore, the parliamentary group specifically highlighted concerns about the PHSO’s statistics regarding women’s awareness of the pension changes and how official correspondence was interpreted and retained.
The PHSO investigation revealed that the DWP had provided adequate and accurate information between 1995 and 2004. However, the probe found that DWP decision-making between 2005 and 2007 resulted in a significant delay.
This delay meant there was a 28-month gap before the department began sending letters to 1950s-born women about their state pension age changes.
APPG co-chairs Rebecca Long-Bailey and Bryn Davies expressed deep concern over the Government’s stance. “As you can imagine many of those women who have suffered this injustice are simply devastated and perplexed by the Governments response,” they said.
The co-chairs formally requested the committee to consider “opening an inquiry or holding a one-off session into the Governments response.” The APPG has called for an investigation into what financial redress options were considered and costed by the DWP.
The group also wants to know whether additional compensation options remain available for consideration.
As well as this, parliamentary group noted that while the Work and Pensions Committee lacks legal powers to force government action, it has historically played a crucial role.
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The committee has previously been instrumental in scrutinising government responses to PHSO reports.
As well as this, the APPG has requested that the committee publish its own response to the government’s handling of the PHSO report.
“It is gravely concerning that without such scrutiny in this instance, a precedent may be set by this case where the government rejects the PHSO’s independent review and central recommendations without further challenge and discussion,” the co-chairs stated.
The group emphasised that proper scrutiny of the government’s response to the PHSO report was essential to maintain the integrity of independent reviews.
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Axel Rudakubana admitted to killing three girls at a dance class in Southport on the first day of his trial. The 18-year-old was to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, charged with 16 offences, including three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.
Dramatically changing his plea at the last moment, the teenager admitted to all the charges. He pleaded guilty to the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine. He also admitted to possessing terrorist material and producing the toxin ricin.
On Thursday, Rudakubana was sentenced to life with a minimum of 52 years for carrying out the horrific attack which was described as a “pre-meditated attempt to commit indiscriminate mass murder”.
The judge also apologised to the families of the victims who, because of Rudakubana’s surprise guilty plea, were not in court to see his admission.
Here’s everything we know about the devastating Southport attack of July 2024.
What did Axel Rudakubana do?
On the morning of 29 July 2024, then 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana travelled from his home village of Banks in Lancashire via taxi. He was then seen calmly exiting the vehicle and entering the dance studio on Hart Street.
In just minutes, witnesses would describe seeing young girls being carried out of the building covered in blood with stab wounds to their backs, while their screaming parents rushed to find them.
Advertised for children aged between years 2 and 6 at primary school, the summer event quickly turned to “a scene from a horror movie”, with an enormous emergency incident declared.
Bebe and Elsie both died at the scene. Alice died in hospital the day after the incident.
Ten others were injured, including eight children, yoga teacher Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, who both had heroically attempted to prevent the attack.
He has now pleaded guilty to all charges of murder and attempted murder, as well as terror-related offences. He was found to have a PDF file titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” and charged with possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
What happened after the attack?
Shortly after the murders, violent riots broke out across the country. These were fuelled by far-right misinformation online which claimed that Rudakubana – whose identity was not yet public – was a Muslim and asylum seeker. Much of the violence was targeted towards Muslim and migrant communities.
Over the course of six days, the rioting became the largest incident of social unrest in the UK since the 2011 riots. Attempting to tackle the violence, around 130 police officers were injured. By September, 1,280 arrests had been made, with 800 charged.
In the months since his crime and the subsequent riots, Rudakubana had remained consistently silent in the dock, with prosecutors and investigators compiling CCTV and witness statements to establish the case against him.
In a previous appearance, the court heard that Rudakubana had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and had refused to engage with a psychiatrist at a police station. In the period leading up to the attack, he had also been unwilling to communicate with his family and had not been leaving the house.
Rudakubana’s not-guilty pleas were entered on his behalf in December 2024, as he chose not to speak. But as each charge was read to him on 20 January this year, the teenager quietly said “guilty” to each count.
Public inquiry
The home secretary announced on Monday that there will be a public inquiry into how Rudakubana “came to be so dangerous” and why Prevent “failed to identify the terrible risk” he posed to others.
Yvette Cooper confirmed the 18-year-old had “contact with a range of different state agencies throughout his teenage years” before carrying out his “meticulously planned rampage”.
Ms Cooper said in a statement: “He was referred three times to the Prevent programme between December 2019 and April 2021 aged 13 and 14.
“He also had contact with the police, the courts, the Youth Justice system, social services and mental health services.
“Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed.”
Announcing the public inquiry, the Home Secretary continued: “Although, in line with CPS advice to preserve the integrity of the prosecution, we were constrained in what we were able to say at the time, the Home Office commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review during the summer into the three referrals that took place and why they were closed.
“We will publish further details this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent programme.
“But we also need more independent answers on both Prevent and all the other agencies that came into contact with this extremely violent teenager as well as answers on how he came to be so dangerous, including through a public inquiry that can get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change.”
Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood has signed a new contract to keep him at the City Ground until 2027.
Wood has been one of the stars of the season so far, scoring 14 goals in 22 Premier League appearances to help Forest to third in the standings.
The 33-year-old joined Forest on loan from Newcastle in January 2023 and completed a permanent move in June that year.
Despite only being at the club for two years he is their leading Premier League goalscorer, overtaking Bryan Roy’s record of 24 in December.
“I’m very excited and very happy to have it completed and done, and I’m looking forward to the next couple of years, at least,” Wood said.
“I saw the ambition when I first arrived. When I spoke to the owner and his family and saw where they want to be and where they see this club to be – it was clear they have high ambitions and big dreams. He has backed the club for years, even before promotion to the Premier League, which is fantastic, and the team is pushing in the right direction.
“I can’t thank the fans enough, they always come in voice and they’re always behind the team and myself, it’s a pleasure playing in front of them. Here’s to a few more years together.”
Politics
Barrister demands change to the law as Axel Rudakubana avoids life sentence by TEN days: ‘It’s evil!’
A UK Barrister has said the law “should be changed” on handing life sentences to those under 18, as Axel Rudakubana is set to avoid a whole life sentence for the Southport attack.
Speaking to GB News, Steven Barrett said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “should have used his majority” in Parliament to change the law ahead of Rudakubana’s sentencing.
The Southport triple-killer will be sentenced today at Liverpool Crown Court – but while his crimes could warrant a whole life order, this cannot be applied as he was 17 at the time of the offences.
A minimum term will be instead set by the judge before he can be considered for release.
Barrister Steven Barrett has demanded a change in the law for life sentences ahead of the decision on Axel Rudakubana’s killings
CPS / GB News
Admitting that the case is “rare” for such a law to be changed, Barrett told GB News that the Labour Government could have “taken action” to avoid Rudakubana avoiding the full hand of justice.
Barrett fumed: “I would have liked my country and my Prime Minister to have taken action to avoid that. But that’s where we are.
“The Prime Minister will talk about votes for 16 year olds, but the idea that they might be liable for their criminal actions, apparently there has to be a gap between that. And I think we as a country need to look at this.”
Expressing his outrage at the Southport attack and the apparent failings of the Prevent scheme which allowed Rudakubana to “slip through the net”, Barrett declared that the July 2024 killings were “evil”, and the details of the incident are “horrific”.
Axel Rudakubana will be sentenced in court today for the Southport attackCPS/PA
Barrett said: “I just want to be absolutely unequivocal. This is evil. What we’re going to discover and the details that are going to come out are horrific.
“He didn’t just murder three beautiful, innocent children. He stabbed ten other people grotesquely, and he traumatised everybody who wasn’t stabbed.”
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When pressed by host Miriam Cates on Keir Starmer’s defence of the “information vacuum” following the attack, Barrett claimed that the country “doesn’t have an honest Prime Minister”.
He stated: “I don’t believe the Prime Minister, to be honest, that claim doesn’t stack up on any level. He says he couldn’t have told us in August that it was terrorism, and then he tells us in October that it’s terrorism – he knew back then.
“I’m afraid the only conclusion that a rational person can draw is that we don’t have an honest Prime Minister.”
Barrett added: “In the grand scheme of things, he’s [Rudakubana] avoiding a whole life tariff because of ten days. That seems to me a technicality.”
Barrett told GB News that Prime Minister Keir Starmer is ‘dishonest’
GB News
Praising the “bravery” of Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, who were two adults stabbed in defence of the children in the Southport attack, Barrett called for the “heroes” to be honoured, following the sentencing.
Barrett concluded: “I think the two of them are absolute heroes, and we as a country should do something for Leanne and John. We should honour them, we should make them knights and dames.
“Rudakubana represents absolute evil, and they represent good. They are heroes in our society and we are lucky to have them.”
Starmer has defended his position on withholding information about the Southport killer. The Prime Minister insisted he was following “the law of the land” to prevent the case against Rudakubana from collapsing.
“You know and I know that it would not have been right to disclose those details,” Starmer told reporters. “The only losers if the details had been disclosed would be the victims and the families because it ran the risk the trial would collapse.”
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The Church of England will vote next month on outsourcing policing of safeguarding issues to an independent watchdog, amid an ongoing fallout from an inquiry into historic allegations of abuse.
The General Synod, otherwise known as the Church’s parliament, will debate and vote on the changes in February, with the lead Bishop of Safeguarding admitting that the church had failed to act on, and then deliberately covered up, abuse.
Synod, which includes Bishops, clergy, and church-goers, will sit for its first session since the resignation of the Archbishopof Canterbury Justin Welby last month over safeguarding failures.
Dr Welby stood down in November after a damning report exposed a “conspiracy of silence” about the abuse of children and young men perpetrated by barrister John Smyth.
About 130 boys are believed to have been victims of Smyth, who died in 2018. When he was discovered, Smyth was allowed to move abroad with the knowledge of church officials, where he continued his abuse.
The Church of England has now proposed a new independent safeguarding approach to stop a cover-up happening again, with the first three days of Synod focussing on these issues. There are two options, which will be voted on in February.
The first would see all safeguarding officers currently working in dioceses, cathedrals, and the national church transferred to work for a new independent organisation.
The second would see most national staff move to a new non-church watchdog, but other diocesan and cathedral officers remaining with their current church employers.
Both options would see their safeguarding work scrutinised by a second external body, which would give victims somewhere to appeal to if they think their cases have not been dealt with properly.
The Church’s lead bishop for safeguarding, Bishop of Stepney, Joanne Grenfell, is backing the first option, which she said is “sufficiently radical to bring about the fundamental change we need”.
She added: “I believe that bringing together all our safeguarding colleagues into one external body with specialist line management and accountability is the best way to address the current gaps in provision”.
In other matters to be discussed, a motion will also be brought to debate how to encourage people from working class backgrounds to join the ministry in the Church of England.
The Synod will also discuss the ongoing use of prayers to bless same-sex couples’ relationships. Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, revealed on Friday that an expected vote on whether the Church of England should allow clergy to enter into same-sex civil marriages will be pushed back.
A vote on the issue had been expected for the July meeting, but this has now been pushed back to a later date while more theological study is done on the issue. Bishop Snow recognised that the decision was “disappointing for LGBTQ+ people”, adding: “I am very conscious that there are people who are frustrated by that. I’m personally disappointed but I’m still confident that we can get there.”
The Synod will also consider proposed measures to make it easier to appoint Bishops, by slightly reducing the majority needed in the voting. One proposed measure would remove the current anonymous voting system.
If accepted by the Synod then the changes would affect the process to select a new Archbishop of Canterbury, which is being overseen by the former head of Mi5 Lord Jonathan Evans.
Footage from a taxi dashcam captured the moment Axel Rudakubana arrived at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class, where he murdered three girls.
The video shows Rudakubana, who had booked the taxi under a fake name, refusing to pay for the journey before getting out and going through the doors of The Hart Space, in Southport, on 29 July 2024.
A week before the deadly attack, doorbell footage shows the moment Rudakubana’s father stopped him getting a taxi to his former school.
On Thursday, after admitting three murders and ten attempted murders, Rudakubana was jailed for 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court.
A woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for causing the death of an eight-month-old baby by dangerous driving.
Bridget Curtis, 71, had previously pleaded guilty to causing the death of Mabli Cariad Hall outside Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.
Mabli was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff after she was hit by a white BMW on Wednesday 21 June 2023.
She was later moved to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children where she died four days later.
Pic: Family handout
‘Entirely tragic’
Swansea Crown Court heard Mabli and her family were visiting her grandmother, who was receiving end-of-life care at the hospital, when the crash happened.
Prosecuting, Craig Jones said it was an “entirely tragic” case.
He said Mabli was “very nearly nine months” when she died, a day when the weather conditions were “fine and dry”.
Mabli was with her father in a grassed area under some trees opposite the hospital’s entrance.
“Mr Hall put Mabli back into her pushchair and was adjusting the straps when he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle,” Mr Jones said.
Bridget Curtis. File pic: Rex
The court heard that Curtis had given her daughter a lift to the hospital for an appointment and had stopped the car outside the main entrance.
After she was dropped off, her daughter went to retrieve her handbag from the back of the car but was “unable to see the bag and tapped the window to attract her mother’s attention”.
“With the engine running, [the defendant] turned around from her seat to look in the back,” he said.
“The defendant had failed to switch off the vehicle and had failed to place the car, which was an automatic-geared vehicle, into a parked setting.”
In a period of four and a half seconds, the vehicle reached a top speed of 29 miles per hour and travelled a distance of 28 metres.
‘So beautiful’
In a victim impact statement, Rob Hall told the court he remembered Mabli “smiling at [him], making her cute noises”.
He said the “violent revving, screeching tyres” of the car was something he saw and heard “daily”.
Mr Hall said that after Mabli’s death, his family “were numb, felt helpless and destroyed”.
“This struggle continues to this day, and will always be there. Life from then until now has been horrendous. It’s been so hard to live this life,” he said.
“It’s exhausting, we’re drained, and I just don’t know how we recover from such trauma.”
Pic: Family handout
Mabli’s mother, Gwen Hall, also read a victim impact statement from the witness box, telling the court the day Mabli died was the day her life “irreversibly changed for the worse”.
“She had said ‘Mamma’ for the first time only the day before,” she said.
Ms Hall said the family was “heartbroken”, but that the word “does not do justice to how broken and destroyed we are as a family”.
“Everyone needs to remember that Mabli was eight months old, she was so bright, so beautiful and so full of love and life. She was the apple of all our eye,” Ms Hall added.
“She was my best friend, my shadow, my second skin.”
‘Devastation of their lives’
In mitigation, Mr John Dye said the defendant had “led a blameless, law-abiding life”.
He said she had shown “extremely genuine remorse” and had written a letter to Mabli’s family.
The court heard Curtis had “ongoing mobility issues” and had caring responsibilities for her adult daughter.
Handing down his sentence of four years in prison, Judge Geraint Walters said “loving parents, siblings and a wider extended family suffered the devastation of their lives”.
“That is because that day, they suffered that which each parent dreads, the loss of a much-cherished child, then just eight months old,” he said.
“Her life was taken from her senselessly, and indeed needlessly, as a result of your actions.”
The judge said the case was aggravated by the fact that others were struck by the vehicle, namely Mabli’s father and uncle.
As well as the custodial sentence, Curtis was also disqualified from driving for eight years and would have to undergo a driving test before she could re-apply for a licence.
Pic: GoFundMe
Addressing the media outside court, Mabli’s grandfather, Paul Sambrook, thanked “everyone who [had] been part of the process to secure justice for Mabli Cariad”.
“We’ve waited over 18 months for this day and finally this nightmarish chapter has come to an end,” he said.
“We’ll go home now and start to live our lives without Mabli. She was the sunshine who lit up our lives in so many ways, but now we have to focus on helping the other children of the family to cope with the loss and find a new way forward.
“If there is anything to learn from the pain and bereavement, this is what it is. Take care every time you sit behind the wheel of your car, think carefully about your own safety as well as the safety of others.”
Read more from Sky News:
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Iwan Jenkins from CPS Wales told Sky News that nothing could change “the tragic events of that day”.
“Although the criminal case has concluded, our thoughts remain with Mabli’s family over their heart-breaking loss and with everybody who received injuries on that day,” he added.
Politics
Donald Trump birthright citizenship order temporarily halted as judge labels move ‘blatantly unconstitutional’
Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship in the US has been blocked by a judge.
Judge John Coughenour has issued a temporary restraining order to clamp down on Donald Trump’s ban, which would have seen undocumented migrants in the US unable to register their children as American citizens.
Coughenour claimed the order was “blatantly unconstitutional”, and his intervention has seen the move halted for the next 14 days.
“I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case whether the question presented was as clear,” the judge said.
Judge John Coughenour has issued a temporary restraining order to clamp down on Donald Trump’s ban
REUTERS
‘Evil’ Southport killer jailed for minimum 52 years
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Steph Curry finally got the contract he deserves from the Warriors
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Entertainment8 years ago
Mod turns ‘Counter-Strike’ into a ‘Tekken’ clone with fighting chickens
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Fashion8 years ago
Your comprehensive guide to this fall’s biggest trends
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