A mother whose daughter was severely injured in the Southport attack has opened up about the heartstopping moment her husband called her and said “the kids have been stabbed”.
Giving testimony at the Southport Inquiry on Monday, the woman said her two daughters, who cannot be named, were at the Taylor Swift-themed class last year when Axel Rudakubana launched his attack, seriously wounding her eldest child.
She said she raced to the studio on Hart Street on 29 July, while her husband frantically searched the building for the girls, surrounded by screams and “true horror” that has never left him.
Jonathan Hayes, the businessman working in the building who was stabbed by Rudakubana when he went to help, was next to give a statement to the public inquiry, describing the scene in the hall as “like something from a horror movie”.
The inquiry, which resumed at Liverpool Town Hall on Monday, will examine 18-year-old Rudakubana’s dealings with relevant agencies before he killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and attempted to murder 10 others in Southport.
The families of the three girls who were stabbed to death hope the inquiry will leave “no stone unturned”, their lawyer said on Monday.
In the first of the impact evidence heard on Monday, the mother said her husband, who sat alongside her with his arm around her, returned to collect their teenage daughter and her younger sister from the studio and “couldn’t make sense of what was happening”.
She said: “He called me, his voice urgent. The words he spoke will never leave me: ‘You need to get here now. The kids have been stabbed’.
“Shock took over instantly. I couldn’t make sense of the words. I went to my neighbour to drive me to the scene, it was the slowest journey to get there.
“My husband meanwhile had entered the building, witnessing true horror that will stay with him forever, and been unable to locate our daughters.
“During his search, he recalls time standing still, hearing screams and he then received a call from our eldest and located the girls at the neighbour’s house.
“He relives these moments daily.”
The woman said she arrived “to a scene reserved for nightmares”.
She added: “It felt as though I was watching from outside of my own body, like someone was living my life, within a film.
“Emergency services were everywhere, children lay hurt around me, I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to know.”
Their eldest daughter suffered a chest wound and needed blood transfusions after being stabbed, the inquiry heard.
Mr Hayes told the inquiry of the moment he arrived at the scene.
He said: “My initial feeling was one of terror, seeing a man wielding a bloody knife.
“That quickly turned to horror as I witnessed critically-injured children and began to realise what was happening. I grappled with the attacker and fell to the floor.
“Initially I didn’t even know I had been stabbed, but when I looked down, I saw blood pouring out of my leg.”
Mr Hayes said he thought Rudakubana might “finish me off”, but instead colleagues came to his aid, using a makeshift tourniquet to stem the blood loss.
He added: “I am pretty sure that saved my life. The pain of the wound was now overwhelming. Because I was losing so much blood, I could feel myself fading and I thought I was going to die. That was pretty scary.”
Mr Hayes told the hearing he remained conscious as he was carried from the building on a stretcher after police had tackled and arrested the knifeman.
He said: “The scene in the hall was like something from a horror movie, it was like someone had painted the walls red.”
Mr Hayes continued: “My next recollection is blue lights and getting to the major trauma unit at Aintree Hospital.
“After that, it’s a bit blurry because I was dosed up on morphine. I don’t remember getting into hospital.
“My overriding feeling was one of fear; I thought I was dying at every stage; whilst on the floor in the office, on the stretcher, in the road and in the ambulance.
“That anxiety didn’t diminish until I was at hospital. Only when in hospital did I feel safe.”
The mother told the inquiry the summer was lived in “shock and survival mode”.
She added: “We hope this inquiry brings lessons and accountability so that no family has to suffer what we and others have suffered.
“Despite the evil act that has so heavily impacted us, we refuse to let it define us or our girls and their future.
“Together we will continue to create positive change and do everything we can to ensure safer communities for the next generation.”
Speaking outside Liverpool Town Hall on Monday, solicitor Christopher Walker said: “My clients, the three bereaved families, hope the inquiry will leave no stone unturned in establishing the facts around what led to this day. As both the chair and the prime minister have said, Southport must be a line in the sand, and this inquiry must lead to change.”
