Inquiry hears girl stabbed six times protecting sister during Southport dance workshop massacre

A little girl stabbed six times while shielding her younger sister from the Southport attacker has been hailed as a hero by her devastated mother. Both girls survived, but the elder child was left gravely wounded in the assault that claimed the lives of three others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.

The inquiry into the 29 July 2024 atrocity heard harrowing testimony at Liverpool Town Hall from the family, who described how their daughters, anonymised as C2 and C7, endured a nightmare of unimaginable cruelty.

Their mother’s voice broke as she read a statement, calling the girls “our heroes”. She recalled how their father discovered the youngest daughter sheltering in a nearby house, before frantically searching for the eldest. He eventually spotted “two small legs sticking out from behind a white van”, where paramedics were desperately treating her.

“Unbelievably brave in the moment, she told her daddy that she was ok,” the mother said. “It was in that moment, seeing our daughter so gravely injured, covered in blood and barely breathing, that the weight of it all overwhelmed him. It was too much for his body to process and he fainted.”

The inquiry was told the girls later pieced together what happened. The younger child had initially thought the attacker was there to show them their dance teacher’s new puppy. Instead, he launched a savage assault, stabbing children and their teacher before turning his knife on the sisters.

The older girl was stabbed in the chest and arm. As the attacker loomed over her paralysed sister, knife raised, she dragged the younger child in front of her, taking the blows herself.

“She was then stabbed another six times in the back,” their mother said. “She says she felt it like being repeatedly punched from the force.”

Both sisters somehow escaped and were rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Their mother said the trauma “reached into every corner of our family and left none of us the same”. She now takes daily medication to cope with the aftermath.

Three children – nine-year-old Alice Aguiar, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and six-year-old Bebe King – were killed in the attack. Eight other children and two adults were seriously injured.

The inquiry is examining the background of the killer, Rudakubana, and whether opportunities were missed by agencies to prevent the tragedy. Families of survivors told the panel that the systems designed to protect children had failed catastrophically.

The mother of another girl, identified as child L, said the knowledge that Rudakubana was “known to multiple agencies” was a burden they carried daily. “We want this inquiry to shine a light into the darkest corners of the systems that failed,” she said.

The mother of child C4, also stabbed but alive, described how her daughter now constantly scans her surroundings for danger. The attack has eroded her once-strong trust in men, straining her bond with her father. Fighting back tears, the mother said: “Her finest qualities shone through in the darkest of moments.”

Parents of another survivor, child N, said their daughter had somehow retained her “kind-hearted, spirited, joyful” nature. “It is incredible how she holds onto the light, even after living through so much darkness,” they said.

Others spoke of lasting scars. The mother of child R, physically unhurt, told how her daughter still “remembers everything”, suffers nightmares, panic attacks, and lives in constant fear.

The inquiry was adjourned until Wednesday, but for the families of Southport, the pain remains constant. “There is no end to this,” said one mother