"What should I do if I want to kill somebody?": Axel Rudakubana's chilling call to Childline years before Southport murders

Child killer Axel Rudakubana made a chilling call to Childline years before the Southport murders, asking 'what should I do if I want to kill somebody?', it emerged at his sentencing hearing today.

Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to the murders of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar. He attacked and killed the girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance party at The Hart Space in the Merseyside town on July 29 last year.

Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children and to the attempted murder of Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes. A sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court was continuing on Thursday afternoon.

At the hearing, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC is setting out the facts of the case to the judge, Mr Justice Goose.

Rudakubana was twice removed by the judge from the hearing after repeatedly shouting out, claiming to be ill and needing a paramedic.

Ms Heer told the judge Rudakubana was born in Cardiff and moved to Southport with his family in 2013. In 2017 he became a pupil at The Range High School, in Formby.

The prosecutor said that on October 4, 2019, Rudakubana contacted the charity Childline and asked: "What should I do if I want to kill somebody?"

She said: “In the days that followed he explained that he hated someone at school who’d bullied him.

“He felt angry and wanted to kill them. He said he had taken a knife to school but would only use it if the person really annoyed him.”

The court heard that following reports of incidents at home, Rudakubana stopped attending school in May 2021. Later, in March 2022, a place was found for him at Presfield High School, but he did not attend.

Ms Heer said: