True Crime with Rachel Shannon
The Most HORRIFYING Case I've Covered: A Day of Joy Turned into Terror for 26 Innocent Children
Mon, 03 Mar 2025
Join as we recount the chilling events that unfolded at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop for children in Southport, England. What began as a day filled with laughter and creativity quickly descended into chaos and terror. In this gripping video, we share the harrowing details of how a peaceful gathering of 26 children aged 6 to 13 turned into a nightmare when an attacker entered the dance studio, armed and intent on causing harm. When investigators dug deeper into the motive of this attack, they were met with the possibility that their suspect could have much bigger plans: He was formulating a plot that could have killed thousands. With this, we can honor the memory of the many young victims, including 7-year-old Elsie Stancombe, 6-year-old Bebe King, and 9-year-old Alice Da Silva Aguiar.What are your thoughts on this horrifying case? Let's discuss in the comments.
Chapter 1: What tragic event occurred at the Taylor Swift-themed workshop?
Picture this. It's a warm summer morning. Your kids are up and they're excitedly getting ready for an afternoon of arts and crafts, music, and playtime with their best pals. You drop them off, excited to hear how it went later in the day. But when you return, you find out that your child didn't have a fun-filled party with friends.
Instead, they were attacked, randomly selected by a maniac whose sole purpose was to hurt your and every other child there. That is what almost 30 different families experienced on July 29th, 2024. Today's case is probably one of the most tragic and gut-wrenching cases I've ever discussed. I know I say that a lot, but trust me, this one is going to be a rough listen.
It was a warm summer day on the 29th of July in 2024 when 26 children, all between the ages of 6 and 13, gathered at the HeartSpace Studio on Heart Street in Southport, England for a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop. The children had all arrived by around 9.30am that morning, all happy and excited to move their bodies to their favorite music.
For the almost two hours that followed, everyone in that party, including the adults who were watching over the children, were enjoying themselves. But that fun and joy would soon be met with absolute horror. A violent, brutal situation literally out of anyone's worst nightmares.
By 11.45 that morning, the children were gathered around a table, singing and making friendship bracelets, when all of a sudden, a man entered the room wearing a green hoodie and a face mask. He was carrying a 20 centimeter long kitchen knife and without even saying one word, he He grabbed the child closest to him and began stabbing her over and over and over again.
After stabbing the first little girl, he went around the room and started stabbing any and all children as violently and as quickly as possible. Of course, this caused an absolute frenzy to break out with the adults in the room trying their best to save as many children as they could. 36-year-old Leanne Lucas was one of the organizers of the event and was in charge of the children.
She started grabbing as many children as she could and tried to get out of that room with those girls, but as she did that, the man came after her and started stabbing her as well. She was stabbed in the head, neck, back, shoulder blade, and arm. She did manage to get out with a couple of the girls, but she passed out against her car on the road as soon as she exited the building.
As that was happening, another adult in the room, Heidi Little, had been sitting on the floor with the girls making bracelets when the chaos broke out. As she saw Leanne being stabbed, she tried pulling her away but wasn't able to. She and another little girl were able to escape the room and they went to a nearby bathroom where they hid.
There were also a few other businesses nearby as well as a few houses. Of course, they started hearing the commotion, including the blood curdling screams of all these children. According to one witness who worked next door, these were not the sounds of children happily yelling and shouting as they had heard all morning. These screams were filled with horror.
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Chapter 3: What happened during the attack on the children?
However, what he did did cause terror, shock, revulsion to the entire country. What he did caused riots, protests, and demonstrations. What he did will have a lasting impact, not just on the families, but the community around them. Given all the aggravating factors, the only mitigating factors really were his age and his plea.
He was just 17 years old at the time of the crime, just one week before his 18th birthday. However, it's not lost on anybody that this seemed intentional. He wanted to get this done before he was an adult with hopes of receiving the lightest sentence possible, and it seemed that it did work because his age changed. did work in his favor.
For the murder charges, he received life sentences with a minimum of 52 years served. The attempted murder charges for the children landed him a minimum of 18 years with the adult attempted murder landing him 16 years. He then got 12 years for possession of the ricin and 18 months for the terrorism documents and possession of the knife. Each of these sentences will run concurrently.
This is my sentence for Axel Rudicabana. During this sentence hearing, Axel Rudicabana was determined to disrupt the proceedings so that he would not have to face the victims of his crimes and justice. I was required to have him removed from court, not because that is what he wanted, but he was preventing the hearing from being held in the normal way.
Accordingly, I pass sentence in his voluntary absence whilst his counsel, both leading and junior, and solicitor are present in court. On the 29th of July last year, Rudica Barner left home and travelled by taxi to the Hart Space in Hart Street, Southport, armed with a large kitchen knife which he had bought on the internet on the 13th of July, 16 days earlier.
He knew that there was to be a Taylor Swift themed yoga and dance workshop where very young girls, mostly aged between six and 11, were to enjoy an organized party safely in an upstairs room where the organizers were to look after him. There were 26 children in the party, all of them happy and enjoying themselves.
It started at about half past nine that morning on a warm summer's day, but he had targeted those very young children for the horrific, extreme violence he was intent upon. At 11.45 that morning, he arrived and walked straight into the building at the stairs to where he could hear the sound of happy children. In his mind was the intention to murder as many of them as he physically could.
He wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy, young girls. And over about 15 minutes, he savagely killed three of them and attempted to kill eight more, as well as two adults who tried to stop him. It was of such extreme violence of the utmost and exceptionally high seriousness that it is difficult to comprehend why it was done.
I am sure that Rudacabana had a settled and determined intention to carry out these offences, and that had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child, all 26 of them, as well as any adults who got in his way. I am now going to sentence Axel Rudacabana, having explained my reasons. On counts one to three murder, I sentence him to custody for life
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