The parents of the Southport killer apologised to the families of the girls he murdered as they gave evidence to the public inquiry into his attack.
On Thursday, the Liverpool Town Hall inquiry heard from Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, who both gave their evidence via videolink, which could be heard but not seen by the public and press.
Their son, Axel Rudakubana, was 17 when he killed Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; Bebe King, six; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year.
Ms Muzayire, who moved to the UK from Rwanda with her husband in 2002, read a prepared statement on behalf of her and her family, who she said had come to the inquiry with “broken hearts”.
She said: “There are no words that can ever be enough to express our grief and remorse for the children whose lives were taken or forever changed by our son’s actions.
“We think of them every single day and we carry the weight of that loss in our hearts and prayers.
“As a mother, I grieve deeply for my own son, but most of all for the innocent lives lost and the lives that have been devastated.
“There are many things that Alphonse and I wish we had done differently, anything that might have prevented the horrific event of July 29 2024.
“(For) our failure, we are profoundly sorry. We pray every day for the children and their families, and for God’s comfort to surround them.”
During his evidence, Mr Rudakubana said he was “desperately sorry” for the families of the victims.
Nicholas Bowen KC, representing the bereaved families, told him: “They have complete disdain for your excuses and the manner in which you have answered questions.”
Mr Bowen was stopped by inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford, who told him: “That’s not appropriate at all.”
When asked by Mr Bowen if there was anything he wanted to say to the parents, Mr Rudakubana said he cried for them.
He said: “I cry for them all the time because I have a reminder (of) my son, who turned to be a monster.
“When I cry for him, I remember them and cry for them.
“I’m so ashamed. I lost the courage to save their little angels. I’m so sorry.”
He said he still loved his son “so much” and told the inquiry: “I know he is dangerous but he is my son.”
He added: “I think the love I had for him overrode good judgment.”
Mr Rudakubana appeared to cry at one point during his evidence when he was asked if he had feared that Rudakubana had gone to carry out an attack after realising he had left their home in Old School Close, Banks, Lancashire, on the morning of July 29 2024.
He said: “The only hope I was hanging on to was that he didn’t take anything, he didn’t take a bag and I didn’t imagine that he would carry a knife somewhere else.
“I was just clinging on to the hope that he is going for a walk, if he was carrying a bag I would have ran out.”
He said he later learnt from a message from someone in his church group about the attack.
He said: “I immediately feared that AR could be involved.”
Ms Muzayire told the inquiry she also believed he had gone for a walk.
She said: “There’s no way I’d have ever thought that he was going to do any dreadful thing like this.
“At the time I didn’t know that he could do that.”
She apologised for “being naive”.
The inquiry heard in her statement she said after her son left the house she “lay back down on the bed and prayed that AR’s walk went well, that he would come back fine”.
Ms Muzayire also became tearful during her evidence when asked about knives being kept in the family home.
She said: “I am very traumatised about knives. I hate knives, I hate anything to do with a knife.”
Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “I know you had experience in Rwanda and I’m not going to go into that because it’s going to upset you further.”
She asked for a break in her evidence after becoming upset.
Later, she was asked about knife packaging found at the home with her fingerprint on and again became emotional saying: “Don’t associate me with knives.”
Mr Rudakubana said he did not have any idea why his son chose to target innocent young girls at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
He said: “I don’t understand how he got there and he chose that place.”
