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What was supposed to be a day of joy turned to terror and
heartbreak when an intruder with a knife attacked the girls and
their teacher on July 29 in the seaside town of Southport in
northwest England.
The teen arrested in the aftermath goes on trial Monday on three
counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional
charges related to possessing the poison ricin and for having an
al-Qaida manual.
The trial is expected to last four weeks.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, who has refused to speak in court, had
pleas of not guilty entered on his behalf at Liverpool Crown
Court. He was 17 at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors haven't said what they believe led to the rampage.
The stabbings led to a week of rioting across parts of England
and Northern Ireland after Rudakubana — then unnamed — was
falsely identified as an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived
in Britain by boat.
Violent groups made up mostly of men who were mobilized by
far-right activists on social media attacked mosques and hotels
housing migrants, tossed beer bottles, rocks and other weapons
at police, and set fire to cars as they clashed with officers in
dozens of cities.
More than 1,200 people were arrested for the disorder and
hundreds have been jailed for up to nine years in prison.
Rudakubana, who was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants, is
charged with murder in the deaths of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9,
Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6.
Eight other girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, were wounded,
along with instructor Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes, who
worked in a business next door and intervened. Fifteen other
girls, as young as 5, were at the class but uninjured.
Several months after his arrest on the day of the killings,
Rudakubana was charged with additional counts for production of
a biological toxin, ricin and possession of information likely
to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an
act of terrorism for having the manual in a document on his
computer.
Police have said the stabbings haven't been classified as acts
of terrorism because the motive isn't yet known.
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