A mother arrived to collect her daughter from a dance class to be told “a man was inside with a knife”, the public inquiry into the Southport attack heard.
“Children lay injured around us.
“And my daughter, she was nowhere to be found.
“Everything slowed down,” the mother of the youngster, identified only as child P, said in a statement read to the hearing at Liverpool Town Hall.
“There were no emergency services yet, just frantic parents, distressed neighbours, and injured children,” the statement continued.
The mother said in the statement, read out by a legal representative, that her daughter had seen Axel Rudakubana walk into the room and begin stabbing children before she ran.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed in the attack at the Taylor Swift-themed class when Rudakubana, 18, also attempted to murder eight other children and two adults.
“She was caught in the stampede on the stairwell and fell, but she knew she had to get up,” child P’s mother said.
“She told us she helped a little girl, ‘much smaller than me, mummy, I grabbed her hand, and I told her to run’.
“A little girl she did not know.
“A little girl also running for her life.”
“My partner will never forget the look on our daughter’s face, terror in her eyes, covered in blood, screaming for mummy.”
The girl suffered no physical injuries but her mother described the effect of the deep trauma on her daughter from what she had seen.
She has not been able to sleep alone since and struggles to process what she had experienced.
Child P’s mother continued: “On Christmas Eve, she could not be alone in her bedroom.
“The idea of Father Christmas, a man she does not know entering the house, filled her with fear instead of excitement.
“She had to sleep with us.
“She is always afraid, afraid something terrible will happen.
“If she hears sirens, her fear is so overwhelming that her whole body freezes and you can see the instant fear in her eyes.
“The innocence of childhood was stolen from every girl there that day and we as parents have been robbed of the simple joys of watching our child grow up free from fear.”
The mother said the impact has traumatised the whole family, including the child’s grandfather, who dropped her off that day.
Her statement concluded: “Every child deserves to feel safe.
“We owe it to every child to make sure this never happens again.”
The first phase of the inquiry, expected to run until November, will examine Rudakubana’s history and his dealings with relevant agencies, along with any missed opportunities to prevent what happened.
