Southport inquiry: Parents' heartbreaking statements in FULL as inquiry hears of horror

The heartbroken families of the Southport knife attack victims have today spoken out during the second day of the public inquiry.

The inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall, heard evidence from families of the children who survived the attack, carried out by Axel Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year. Rudakubana, who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January for themurders of Alice Da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift dance party in the Merseyside town, left other child victims with "serious injuries", the inquiry was told.

He was found to have attempted to kill 10 people in addition to the three young girls, among them eight children. Here are the heartbreaking words the inquiry heard on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Southport inquiry RECAP: Parents of children injured by Axel Rudakubana speak of horror

Injured girl 'bears the scars' of attack 'both physically and emotionally'

Today’s hearings started with a statement from the parents of a girl who can only be identified as ‘C3’. She was seriously injured in Axel Rudakubana’s attack in Southport but survived. Her father, who also cannot be identified, read the statement from the witness box in Liverpool Town Hall.

He described Rudakubana, who he did not name, as a “coward” - and said his daughter is “our hero”. Reading the joint statement with his wife by his side, he said she was stabbed from behind “by a coward she didn’t even see”.

He continued: “Although she didn't know what was happening, she knew she had to run. We have seen the CCTV footage of her, looking scared, confused and pained. It was troubling for us to see what she had to go through, before either of her parents had arrived at the scene.

“We are so thankful and proud that despite being critically injured she was able to make the decisions she did in that terrible moment. Once she reached hospital, we spent six hours waiting for news as to whether her emergency surgery had been successful.

“We remain eternally grateful that we were lucky that day, and that the skill of the paramedics, surgeons and medical staff meant we got our little girl back. The care provided by Alder Hey on that day, through her additional surgery, and during the rest of her stay at the hospital, was incredible.

“It is a measure of the place that our daughter actually looks forward to going to the hospital and seeing friendly faces she remembers and who remember her. Our daughter is now nearly twelve months into her recovery, and she continues to astound us with the way she has dealt with her experience that day, and her long, slow, steady physical and mental rehabilitation.

“It has been inspiring for us to witness. She has not fully recovered. She bears the scars, both physically and emotionally, of that terrible day. We know that she is only a small way down the path that life will take her, and that obstacles will continue to present themselves along the way.

“We are trying our best to prepare her for the challenges that will come but, in all honesty, we do not know what they will look like.” He said their daughter has “difficulty going to sleep at night” and “looks over her shoulder scanning for potential danger when outside the house".

He said she also has a “fear of loud noises, and having to turn off particular songs when they come on the radio”. Her father continued: “Life is certainly not like it was before. Some days are good, and others less so.

“We remain a strong family unit, but dealing with what happened that day has been unbelievably challenging for every member of our family. The events have affected us all in so many different ways.

“There is no handbook to navigate what we have had to endure. We continue to lean on each other, and that support continues to get us through our most difficult moments.

"Despite what she has been through, our daughter remains the positive, caring, funny, enthusiastic, courageous girl she always was. She has no self-pity about what happened to her. She wears her scars with a dignity and defiance that is remarkable.

“We have said from the beginning that this trauma will not define our daughter. She has the skills and personality to do whatever she wants as she grows up.

“We know that she will continue to press ahead with her positive outlook through life. Our daughter knows that she is loved. We couldn't be prouder of her. She is our hero.”

Mum says daughter still 'unable to talk' about what she witnessed

The inquiry then heard from the mother of a girl who can only be identified as ‘Child Q’. In her statement, read to the hearing by a legal representative, she told how she arrived to collect her daughter as the attack was happening.

“To witness children running from the building, screaming and fearing for their lives is the most horrific experience of my life,” she said. “To be unaware of what was happening, trying to process it all whilst also being fearful of what could happen next - it's an unexplainable feeling.

“What I saw on that day will stick with me forever, I constantly have flashbacks and relive what happened.” She said her daughter was unharmed physically in the attack but has “struggled with the psychological impact of the trauma”.

She added: “To this day she has been unable to talk to us about what happened and what she witnessed. Our daughter became very withdrawn, emotional and had so many worries: - In her words, due to what she witnessed, 'How will I ever be normal again'?

“She is even more anxious about not being with us or being dropped off at another event without us. She is scared when she hears a siren or sees an emergency vehicle. She is still unable to sleep alone and struggles with falling asleep. She always asks for doors to be closed when we enter or leave a room, this helps her to feel safe.

“We will always do everything we can to make sure that what happened doesn't control our lives or take away our joy. Our daughter is a strong, brave and beautiful little girl who has so much love and support around her to get her through the tough days. As her parents all we want is for her to feel safe, loved and to enjoy her childhood and we will do everything we can to make this happen.”

Girl was 'independent and happy' but attack 'changed everything'

The inquiry also heard from the mother of a girl referred to as ‘C8’, who was stabbed by Rudakubana. In a statement read by a legal representative, she said her daughter was “independent and happy” - but the attack “changed everything”.

She told how she rushed to the scene after learning of the stabbings and saw “something no parent should ever see”. She said her daughter “remembers the attack vividly - how he tried to get her face, how she saw other girls being hurt”.

“She told me later she thought it had to be fake, because she couldn't believe something that terrible could really be happening,” she said. “Since that day her life has completely changed. She cannot be left alone and only feels safe with a very small number of people, immediate family or very close friends.

“Where she was once eager to go off with her friends she now needs my support if it is somewhere public or unknown. Simple days out now need a level of safety planning that we would never have considered before.” She said her daughter “continues to suffer from frequent nightmares and wakes in distress”.

“She and all the people there that day have witnessed horrors that no one should ever see and I don't think I will understand the impact on her until she is grown up,” she added. “I am grateful beyond words that she survived. But what she went through, what she saw and what she continues to carry has changed everything.”

Child's fear 'are now painfully real'

The final statement the inquiry heard was from the parents of a girl known as ‘C1’. Her mother read the statement to a hushed Liverpool Town Hall. She told how her daughter escaped the initial attack but was then dragged back into the building by Rudakubana.

“That is how she became known in this nightmare - the girl that was dragged back in,” she said. “She is so much more than that moment on CCTV. Those moments carried so much courage and determination to survive, that the CCTV footage does not tell us.”

C1 suffered 33 stab wounds and underwent two life-saving operations in hospital. Her mother said: “The damage was catastrophic. The hours and days that followed the attack were a living hell.

“Before last summer we would say ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ - turn the fear of doing something new into excitement and go for it, you won't regret it. We no longer say that. Because her fears are now painfully real.

“She loved adventure, she tried everything. She went into the world ready to explore and without hesitation, because she believed, rightfully, that she would be safe. She does not live that way anymore. I am here today to share some of her story and journey. I want to tell you of her bravery and strength and how hard she is fighting, still now, to survive.

“I am sharing these deeply personal moments, because you are responsible for what happens next. This inquiry must bring meaningful, substantial change to ensure no child will ever share her experience again. To ensure the safety of our children.”

Her mother said the most devastating thing to come to terms with was that there were “no adults to help” her daughter. “She was only supported by other children,” she said. “The courage and strength she found leaves me crushed, but in complete awe.

“I would like to say that I don't for a moment doubt that the actions of the teachers there that day saved lives. They escaped to call the police and flag down help, they shielded other children. I am grateful for what they did for those girls.

“But the uncomfortable and often unspoken truth of our own reality is that, when the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself. It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day.

“I think it is vitally important that those girls are now heard. She had fought like hell to get herself out of that building, twice, and that reality is painful. Our children fought alone, they shielded each other, comforted each other, and helped each other and that must be remembered.”

She described in detail how her daughter battled to save her life and the lives of others inside the building. “She tells me that she had tried to find a way out,” she said. “There was only one way to safety, to find her dad and that was down the stairs.

“She tells us how the door was narrow, and everyone was trying to push through. She describes it as a stampede. In the chaos she was knocked over and found herself trapped and huddled with two other children at the top of the stairs.

“She talks quietly of how she put her arms around the girls as he began to attack them. She tells me with such clarity that a moment came where one of the girls was able to get up. She put the girl's hand on the handrail and told her to go — to get down the stairs - and she did.

“The attack continued, she was still holding another girl, ‘I crouched over the top of her’, she says. ‘I told her it would be okay’. She recalls this with such purpose and determination, like it was her responsibility. ‘It happened so fast, but I helped them, I'm glad I could help them, mum’, she tells me.

“She pulled herself up on the middle landing and tells me how she yelled for the other girl to follow her. But he started coming after her and she had to run. She tells me how she couldn't breathe, and things were getting fuzzy. She had, we believe, about five or six stab wounds by this point.

“Somehow, she emerges from the building and we see her, for a brief moment on CCTV, escaping, finding help, showing so much strength. But her arm is badly injured and it's trailing behind, and he grabs it. In a flash of struggle, she's gone again. For eleven seconds she is out of sight.

“And then there she is again. She has stood up after enduring another attack of more than twenty stab wounds to her back and shoulders. She stumbles outside to the windows reaching for help. She eventually falls and soon after is carried to safety.

“She may be a survivor of this attack, but she is still trying to survive this, every single day. We tell her she was brave. How proud we are that she was able to help other girls. How her strength makes us feel strong. How important what she did that day was.

“She feels that in those moments it was her responsibility to help other girls and get them out of the building. She looks back at what she could or should have done differently and how this might have changed the outcome. She struggles to understand how she survived.

“She is grieving for children she didn't know before that day. She is trying to make sense of something that makes no sense. She needs us to guarantee her safety in a world where we can't. It is like sucking out poison. I don't know where to put all the poison at the moment.

“I just carry it with me. It feels sacred and important to protect. I am painfully aware of how close we came to losing her that day and in the days after. How lucky we are to have her with us is not lost on me. Not a day, sometimes even an hour, goes by where I don't become overwhelmed with relief that she is still here.

“Supporting and caring for a survivor of this sort of attack is relentless, exhausting, constantly re-traumatising and incredibly lonely. It cripples every corner of our life. We have to second guess every moment to try and protect everyone.

“The guilt of taking her that day though is hard to overcome. I want her to know that she was responsible for her survival. Life is full of constant triggers that we try to protect her, and ourselves, from. She recalls the noise the knife made and the force that felt like punching.

“Her body shudders sporadically throughout the day and she looks at me. I know that she's having a flashback and feeling it all over again. She does this often when she looks at her scars. Her scars are painful reminders of how brutally her body was violated.

“She didn't ask for them. They weren't put there through surgery, or something she had any say over, or understanding of. Her body was stolen from her. She is often sad and angry. Angry that someone was able to take such a special day from her.

“She deserves an apology - our girls deserve an apology, backed up by the promise that changes will be made and this will not be allowed to happen again. She continues to make steady progress, as we continue to try and rebuild our lives.

“We are so proud of every step she has taken both physically and mentally. She continues to fight to get her life back. We are under no illusion though, that she and our family are forever changed by last year and will be managing the consequences of it for our lifetime.” She finished her statement with a tribute to her daughter, saying: “You are pure magic, we are so proud of you, and we love you so much.”