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Keir Starmer welcomes fall of Assad’s ‘barbaric regime’ in Syria

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Keir Starmer welcomes fall of Assad's 'barbaric regime' in Syria
Reuters Sir Keir Starmer, who has a grey 'short back-and-sides' hairstyle and wears black-rimmed glasses, gestures with his hands as he speaks to the media after arriving in Abu Dhabi Reuters

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s “barbaric regime” in Syria, as he called for the restoration of “peace and stability”.

The ousted Syrian president – who Russian state media report is in Moscow having been granted asylum by Russia – fled the country after his government fell to a lightning rebel offensive early on Sunday.

Sir Keir said the Syrian people “had to put up with [Assad’s] brutal regime for far, far too long”.

When asked if the government would engage with rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), set up as an affiliate of al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK, he said it was “early days” but that there needed to be a “political solution”.

“The developments in Syria in recent hours and days are unprecedented, and we are speaking to our partners in the region and monitoring the situation closely,” Sir Keir said on Sunday, shortly after arriving in the United Arab Emirates for a visit unrelated to events in Syria.

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“The Syrian people have suffered under Assad’s barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure.

“Our focus is now on ensuring a political solution prevails, and peace and stability is restored.”

He also called on “all sides” to protect civilians and minorities, and “ensure essential aid can reach the most vulnerable” in the coming hours and days.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: “Our first priority must be the Syrian people. Syrians need to be protected – all communities and groups.”

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Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey described Assad as “a vile dictator who used chemical weapons against him own people” in a post on X.

He added the UK must “do what we can to ensure the protection of minority groups and ultimately an orderly transition of power with free and fair elections”.

Angela Rayner, who has long red hair with a fringe and is wearing a black blazer with a white jumpsuit, sits on a chair as she speaks to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg

Angela Rayner said the UK and allies would work towards stability in Syria

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner earlier told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the UK wanted to see “a political solution along the lines of UN resolution, and we’re working with our allies”.

Asked if HTS would be better than Assad, Rayner said “we’ve got to have a government in Syria, a political solution, that protests civilians and infrastructure”.

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The Islamist group, set up 13 years ago as a direct affiliate of al-Qaeda, drove the rebels’ rise to power in Syria in recent weeks.

It previously publicly broke ranks with al-Qaeda, although it remains proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK, as well as the UN, the US, Turkey and other countries.

Questions remain over whether it has completely renounced those links, but its message in the run-up to Assad’s deposition has been one of inclusiveness and a rejection of violence.

Former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers told Sky News: “I think Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the leader, has made great efforts over the last 10 years to distance himself from those terrorist groups and certainly the actions we’ve seen of [HTS] over the last two weeks has been those of a liberation movement, not of a terrorist organisation.”

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He added: “It would be rather ridiculous, actually, if we’re unable to engage with the new leadership in Syria because of a proscription dating back 12 years.”

The prime minister’s pre-planned visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for meetings on Monday are unrelated to events in Syria.

The government said Sir Keir is pursuing closer ties with the two countries to increase investment, deepen defence and security ties, and drive growth and new opportunities to benefit working people.

The UK government had been evacuating its citizens from Syria over the weekend before the fall of Damascus overnight.

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On Sunday, hundreds of Syrians in Manchester celebrated Assad’s demise by singing, dancing and crying in the city centre, while dozens of people also gathered in Belfast to celebrate the end of his regime.

Reuters Two women - one wearing a Syria flag around her shoulders - embrace at a celebration to mark the end of Assad's regime at London's Trafalgar Square on an overcast December day Reuters

Syrians hugged, chanted and waved flags at London’s Trafalgar Square on Sunday

There were also celebrations in London’s Trafalgar Square. Sabri Chikhou, a Syrian who was among those at the event, told Reuters news agency: “We are going towards democracy and building a new Syria with a new system, democratic system.

“And we will depend on society and establishment, not to the single regime who control every part in our country.”

A woman called Nadia, also at Trafalgar Square said it was “hard to describe” her response to Assad’s ousting “because we have been waiting for this for a long time”.

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“I think every Syrian person, every free Syrian person is very overwhelmed and very happy because finally we can say that Syria is a free country now,” she added.

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Eurovision: Hamas 7 October attack survivor to represent Israel | Ents & Arts News

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Eurovision: Hamas 7 October attack survivor to represent Israel | Ents & Arts News

A survivor of the 7 October Hamas attack has been chosen to represent Israel at Eurovision.

Yuval Raphael was at the Nova music festival when Hamas led a cross-border attack from Gaza into southern Israel.

Hundreds were killed and many were taken hostage at the event.

The amateur singer was there with friends and later told Israel’s parliament she hid under dead bodies for eight hours.

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Yuval Raphael.
Pic: Eurovision/Tal Givoni
Image:
Yuval Raphael. Pic: Eurovision/Tal Givoni

She added: “I’m going to deal with this thing for the rest of my life.”

The 24-year-old earned her place at Eurovision, taking place in Switzerland in May, after coming first in the Rising Star singing contest on Israeli TV.

She won with a performance of ABBA’s Dancing Queen which she dedicated to victims of the attack which kick-started the war between Israel and Hamas.

After winning, she said: “I can’t explain how excited and ready I am.

“Thank you for giving me this huge honour and trusting me to represent my country on the grand Eurovision stage in Switzerland.”

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In the months since the 2023 attack, which killed over 1,200 people, Israel has killed over 45,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Around 90% of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million people are said to have been displaced.

A ceasefire was recently agreed for the conflict in Gaza, and will see the return of hostages and prisoners.

Read more from Sky News:
Woman jailed for causing baby’s death
Sainsbury’s to cut over 3,000 jobs
Record-breaking Oscar nominations revealed

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Last year’s Eurovision was overshadowed by the war in Gaza, with large demonstrations protesting against Israel’s participation, and the country’s representative was kept under tight security throughout.

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Why wasn’t Southport killer Axel Rudakubana given a whole-life order?

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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana gloated he was ‘glad they’re dead’ after murdering three children

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana been jailed for a minimum of 52 years after pleading guilty to murdering three young girls in a frenzied knife attack last year.

Rudakubana, 18, stabbed and killed the girls aged between six and nine with a 20cm-long kitchen knife as he ambushed a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside.

Wearing a green hoodie, a surgical face mask and armed with the blade, the then 17-year-old travelled five miles from his family home to the studio where he unleashed his murderous rampage.

Sir Keir Starmer vowed the attack would be a “line in the sand” for Britain while announcing a public inquiry into the atrocity after the killer admitted to 16 offences.

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However, despite the lengthy sentence Rudakubana was not given a whole life order. The Independent takes a look at what one is below, and why the killer has avoided one.

(L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were all slain by Axel Rudakubana in a brutal knife attack last year

(L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were all slain by Axel Rudakubana in a brutal knife attack last year (PA Media)

What is a whole life order?

An offender can be sentenced to a whole life order – or “whole life tariff” – for the most serious cases of murder, meaning their crime was so serious they will never be released from prison.

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There were 65 prisoners serving whole life orders in the UK as of 30 June 2023, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Killers Rosemary West, Levi Bellfield, Michael Adebolajo, Wayne Couzens and Lucy Letby were among those serving this type of sentence.

Killer nurse Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole life orders for murdering newborn babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital

Killer nurse Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole life orders for murdering newborn babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital (PA Media)

How is it different to a life sentence?

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Any offender found guilty of murder must be given a life sentence. However, a judge must decide whether to set a minimum term which must be served in full before release on licence, or impose a whole life order.

A murderer will serve a life sentence with a minimum term for the rest of their life, but does not necessarily spend this entire time in prison.

They would usually serve a term in prison, and then be released on licence subject to certain conditions. For example, the minimum term for murder with a knife is 25 years, then the offender would be released on licence. If they broke the conditions of this licence at any point, they could be sent back to prison.

Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens is serving a whole life order for abducting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard

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Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens is serving a whole life order for abducting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard (PA Media)

Why has Rudakubana avoided a whole life order?

A judge cannot impose a whole life order on anyone who was under the age of 18 at the time of the offence, irrespective of the seriousness of that offence.

Despite being aged 18 at the time of his conviction, Rudakubana was 17 when he murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.

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Email demands US government workers report DEI programmes

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Email demands US government workers report DEI programmes

The Trump administration emailed thousands of federal employees on Wednesday, ordering them to report any efforts to “disguise” diversity initiatives in their agencies or face “adverse consequences”.

The request came after President Donald Trump banned diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programmes throughout the government.

Emails seen by the BBC directed workers to “report all facts and circumstances” to a new government email address within 10 days.

Some employees interpreted it as a demand to sell out their colleagues to the White House.

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“We’re really freaked out and overwhelmed,” said one employee at the Department Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal workforce, issued guidance requiring agency heads to send a notice to their staff by 17:00 eastern time on Wednesday. It included an email template that many federal staffers ultimately received that night.

Some employees, like those at the Treasury Department, got slightly different versions of the email.

The Treasury Department email excluded the warning about “adverse consequences” for not reporting DEI initiatives, according to a copy shared with the BBC.

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In one of his first actions as president, Trump signed two executive orders ending “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “DEI” programmes within the federal government and announced any employees working in those roles would immediately be placed on paid administrative leave.

Such programmes are designed to increase minority participation in the workforce and educate employees about discrimination.

But critics of DEI, like Trump, argue that the practice itself is discriminatory because it takes race, gender, sexual identity or other characteristics into consideration.

Trump and his allies attacked the practice frequently during the campaign.

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In a speech Thursday at the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland, Trump declared he was making America a “merit-based country”.

Critics of DEI have praised Trump’s decision.

“President Trump’s executive orders rescinding affirmative action and banning DEI programs are a major milestone in American civil rights progress and a critical step towards building a colour-blind society,” Yukong Mike Zhao, president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, said in a statement.

The group had supported a successful effort at the US Supreme Court to overturn affirmative action programmes at US universities.

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But current federal employees, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation, said that the email they received felt more like an attempt to intimidate staff than to make the government more fair.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Trump has signed a torrent of executive orders since he took office, including a hiring freeze in the federal government, an order for workers to return to the office and an attempt to reclassify thousands of government employees in order to make them easier to fire.

The HHS employee who spoke to the BBC criticised the government’s DEI practices, believing that while it was important to build a diverse staff and create opportunities in health and medical fields, “identity politics have played into how we function normally and that’s not beneficial to the workforce”.

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“But that doesn’t mean I want my colleagues to get fired,” the employee added.

He described the the impact the email and the DEI orders had on his agency as “very calculated chaos”.

The employee’s division had been thrown into confusion, he said, with questions about hiring practices going forward, as well as what programmes and directives were allowed to continue, given Trump’s broad definition of DEI.

A second HHS employee said that hiring and research grants had been frozen and the entire department staff was waiting to see what they could do next.

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The HHS, and one of its subsidiary agencies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), issue millions of dollars in federal grants to universities and researchers across the globe to advance scientific research.

Agency employees feared that the DEI order could have an impact outside the government as well. One questioned if grants that allowed laboratories to create more opportunities for hiring minority scientists and medical professionals would now get the axe.

An employee who worked at the Food and Drug Administration told the BBC that she had not received the email, but all DEI-related activities had been paused.

“We have been told by seniors to keep doing our jobs,” she said. “But there is a sense of fear about how it’s going to have an impact on our work in general.”

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PM accused of 'pathetic bullying' by environmental campaigner after NIMBY article

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PM accused of 'pathetic bullying' by environmental campaigner after NIMBY article


Keir Starmer has been accused of “pathetic bullying” by a Norfolk environmental campaigner who was singled out and ridiculed by the prime minister in an article in the Daily Mail. 

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‘We have to kick start the economy!’ MP defends building plans as Labour accused of ‘ignoring will of the people’

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Labour MP Matthew Pennycook has defended the Government’s new planning reforms, insisting that local communities will retain their right to object to developments.

Speaking to GB News, Pennycook emphasised that “no one is saying that the views of local communities should be ignored”.


The defence comes as part of Labour’s broader initiative to streamline planning processes for major infrastructure projects across the UK.

The Government plans to reduce the number of legal challenges allowed against major infrastructure projects from three to one for “cynical cases lodged purely to cause delay.”

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Matthew Pennycook

Matthew Pennycook said that they are not ignoring local communities

GB News

Speaking to GB News, Pennycook said: “No one is saying that the views of local communities, local people up and down the country, should be ignored under any of the changes we’re making. People will still have a right to object to planning applications.

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“They will keep the right to challenge the lawfulness of government decisions. What we’re saying today is that as part of our plan for change, we’ve got to kick start economic growth.

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“We’ve got to streamline the delivery of the critical national infrastructure that our country needs, whether that’s energy, transport or aviation projects.

“We already made a number of changes to national planning policy last year to aid with that objective. We’re making further changes to the planning and infrastructure bill we’re bringing forward in the coming months.

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“As part of that package, what we’re saying today is that your ability to bring forward repeated judicial review permission requests shouldn’t be allowed.

“We’re going to reduce the number of those permission requests from three to two in most cases. And in cases where a judge says that this challenge has no merit whatsoever from three to one, that will get the delivery of critical national infrastructure speeded up.

Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer has vowed to defeat what he calls “blockers”

PA

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“That will have a real world impact. Because, I’m sure your viewers put it to you repeatedly, it is just too difficult to get anything built in this country.”

The changes follow recommendations from Lord Banner KC’s review of legal challenges against major building projects.

Lord Banner said: “I saw broad consensus from claimants to scheme promoters that a quicker system of justice would be in their interests, provided that cases can still be tried fairly.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to defeat what he calls “blockers” who are preventing the UK from completing vital infrastructure projects.

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Matthew Pennycook

The government plans to reduce the number of legal challenges allowed against major infrastructure project

GB News

“For too long, blockers have had the upper hand in legal challenges – using our court processes to frustrate growth,” Starmer said.

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He added: “We’re putting an end to this challenge culture by taking on the NIMBYs and a broken system that has slowed down our progress as a nation.”

The Prime Minister described the reforms as “taking the brakes off Britain by reforming the planning system so it is pro-growth and pro-infrastructure.”

According to the government, projects that have faced significant delays include the Sizewell C nuclear plant, the A47 national highway project and new windfarms in East Anglia.

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CCTV: Southport killer’s journey to Taylor Swift dance class | News

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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was caught on CCTV footage travelling to the Taylor Swift dance class where he murdered three girls.

Wearing a surgical face mask while armed with the blade, the then 17-year-old travelled five miles from his family home to the studio where he killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe on 29 July, last year.

CCTV footage shows the killer in the taxi and also getting out of the vehicle at The Hart Space.

Rudakubana was today (23 January) jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years.

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US doesn’t need Canadian energy or cars, says Trump

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US doesn't need Canadian energy or cars, says Trump

President Donald Trump has said the US does not need Canadian energy, vehicles or lumber as he spoke to global business leaders at the World Economic Forum.

Trump also reiterated his threat to impose tariffs on the country, saying it can be avoided if the neighbouring nation chose to “become a state” of the US.

“You can always become a state, and if you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit. We won’t have to tariff you,” he said to gasps in the hall in Davos.

Trump has threatened to impose up to 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, possibly by 1 February.

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The renewed threat of tariffs has been met with deep unease by the trade-dependent Canada.

But it has also said it will consider significant countermeasures, including a “dollar-for-dollar” response if the Trump administration follows through.

Roughly 75% of Canada’s exports head south. In contrast, Canada accounts for a much smaller 17% of US exports, though it is the second largest US trading partner, behind Mexico.

Trump in his remarks on Thursday said Canada had been “very tough to deal with over the years”.

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“We don’t need them to make our cars, we make a lot of them, we don’t need their lumber because we have our own forests… we don’t need their oil and gas, we have more than anybody,” he told forum attendees via video link from Washington DC.

Trump reiterated the assertion that the US has a trade deficit with Canada of between $200bn and $250bn. It’s not clear where he got that figure.

The trade deficit with Canada – expected to be $45bn in 2024 – is mostly driven by US energy demands.

The North American auto industry also has highly integrated supply chains.

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Auto parts can cross the borders between the US and Mexico and Canada multiple time before a vehicle is finally assembled.

Trump has also tied the tariffs to border security, saying it will be imposed unless Canada increases security at the shared border.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said that everything is on the table in response if the tariffs are imposed.

That includes a tax or embargo on energy exports to the US, though some of Canada’s provincial leaders disagree with that response.

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On Thursday, Trudeau told reporters that Canada’s goal is to avoid US tariffs altogether but it will step up its response “gradually” to seek the quick removal of levies if they are imposed.

Canada is also pitching itself as a reliable trading partner and a secure source to the US for energy and critical minerals as it lobbies American lawmakers in a bid to avoid the tariffs.

Economists suggest the US depends on Canadian products for energy security.

In 2024, Canadian energy exports came to almost $170bn (C$244bn), according to a recent analysis by TD Bank economists.

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Trump also said on Thursday that businesses should make their products in the US if they want to avoid tariffs.

Tariffs are a central part of Trump’s economic vision – he sees them as a way of growing the US economy, protecting jobs and raising tax revenue.

The new president has ordered federal officials to review US trade relationships for any unfair practices by 1 April.

With reporting from Faisal Islam, economics editor, in Davos.

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Inheritance tax raid on military families will raise ‘nothing’ for Treasury, ex-Chancellor claims

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Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has branded Labour’s plans to impose inheritance tax on military families as “total insanity”, warning the measure would raise “nothing” for the Treasury.

Speaking to GB News, Kwarteng criticised the policy that will affect death-in-service payments for Armed Forces personnel from April 2027.

FULL STORY HERE.

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Axel Rudakubana orders taxi to school week before Southport murders | News

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CCTV shows Southport killer ordering taxi to former school one week before murders

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana ordered a taxi to return to his former school just a week before he stabbed three young girls to death.

Footage shows Rudakubana’s father pleading with a taxi driver not to take him to Range High School, which he was expelled from five years earlier, on 22 July, last year.

He was wearing the same hooded sweatshirt and surgical mask he wore during the attack one week later.

The 18-year-old admitted stabbing Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

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Rudakubana was today (23 January) jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years.

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‘Evil’ Southport killer jailed for minimum 52 years

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'Evil' Southport killer jailed for minimum 52 years
Jonny Humphries

BBC News

Reporting fromLiverpool Crown Court
Elizabeth Cook/PA A court sketch of Axel Rudakubana, who has bushy black hair and sits in a room with a blank expression. Elizabeth Cook/PA

Axel Rudakubana would have been sentenced to a whole life prison term had he been 18 at the time of the mass killing, the judge said

Southport 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.

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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

Southport murderer caught on taxi dashcam before attack
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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.

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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 Police A composite image of Elsie in her red and yellow school uniform, Alice in her white communion dress and Bebe in a black t-shirt and with colourful bows in her hair. All are smiling. Merseyside Police

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, had been having fun listening to their “idol” Taylor Swift when Rudakubana struck

Seconds 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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