The taxi driver who took Axel Rudakubana to the scene of the Southport attack said he saw screaming children running "like a stampede for their lives", but failed to call emergency services for 50 minutes, having picked up another fare first.
Gary Poland, who picked up Rudakubana from his home in Banks, Lancashire, said he “regretted” not stopping to help the children that he saw fleeing from the building in his rearview mirror as he drove away.
He said he threatened to call the police on Rudakubana after he refused to pay for his ride. When Rudakubana went inside the building, where the Taylor Swift-themed dance class was being held, Mr Poland assumed he was going to get money.
At Liverpool Town Hall on Thursday, Mr Poland said: “I regret not helping the children. Their screams were harrowing and I can still hear them when I think back to that day.
"I then saw a mass huddle of children aged approximately six or seven. They were screaming, it was like a stampede for their lives,” he said.
Mr Poland said he wished he had acted quicker. “It’s something that I do think about every day, what I should have done and how this is my fault because I drove him there.”
He told the Southport inquiry that he thought Rudakubana was shooting at people inside, and believed that he was in danger of being a target after the dispute over the taxi fare. On Monday, the inquiry heard that after Rudakubana did not pay, Mr Poland said: “You pay now or the police are on the f****** way, you k**b.”
He said he did not check on the children’s welfare because he was in total shock. “This was terrifying. I was in a state of complete mortal terror and shock.”
A senior investigator said Mr Poland would have been “morally” expected to call emergency services sooner.
Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and attempted to kill 10 others after he entered the dance class.
One minute after leaving Hart Street, Mr Poland phoned his friend, Julian Medlock, who ran a nearby garage. In the call transcript, he said: “He just f****** shot everyone ain’t he?”
Mr Poland told the inquiry that he picked up Rudakubana, whose name was listed as Simon, from his home, and the pair drove in silence before arriving at Hart Street at 11.44am. Mr Poland said he was given no reason to be suspicious during the ride.
He did not realise that Rudakubana was armed with a knife, and told the inquest that he would have disarmed him if he had known. Nicholas Moss, counsel to the public inquiry, asked: “You would have got out and disarmed him, you think?”
Mr Poland said: “Yeah. It’s only a knife.”
Detective Chief Inspector Jason Pye was asked by counsel whether he would have expected a member of the public, acting responsibly, to have called emergency services as soon as they got to a place of safety. Mr Pye said: “Accepting that he had no duty of care, I would like to think, morally, that a call would be made.
“There was enough evidence that we had that he knew what was happening, yes, you would have expected a phone call to come in.”
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