The trial set to take place at Liverpool Crown Court will no longer move forward due to 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana's admission of killing Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9. In total, he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder related to the stabbings, producing ricin, and possessing an al Qaeda training manual, Reuters reports. The manual was entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” and is "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" according to the police report. Still, authorities did not classify the attack as an act of terrorism and never established a motive.
Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the incident, initially had "not guilty" pleas entered on his behalf in December.
"It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence," said Ursula Doyle from the Crown Prosecution Service. "He has shown no signs of remorse." She added that the attack was a "meticulously planned rampage."
It was reported after his conviction that Rudakubana, the son of Rwandan immigrants, had tried to attack his classmates at a prior school he was expelled from for carrying a knife. He was reportedly referred to a counter-radicalization program and no further action was taken.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the case was "a moment of trauma for the nation when there are grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls."
The murders spurred mass anti-immigration riots across Southport initially then all of Britain after it was falsely reported that the suspect was a Muslim immigrant himself.
Judge Julian Goose said Rudakubana would be sentenced on Thursday and a life sentence was inevitable.
