A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the most extreme, shocking and extremely serious crime.”

Judge Julian Goose said 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to attempt the mass murder of innocent, happy young girls”.

Goose said he could not impose a life sentence without parole because Rudakubana was under 18 when he committed the crime.

But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus the six months he spent in custody, before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”

Rudakubana was 17 years old when attacked the children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He wounded eight other girls, aged 7 to 13, along with teachers Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.

The attack shocked the country and moved both street violence and soulful. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who has been repeatedly singled out by authorities for his obsession with violence.

Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges of possessing a knife, ricin poison and al-Qaeda manuals. On Monday, he unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all counts of the indictment.

However, he was not in court on Thursday to hear the verdict.

A few hours earlier, he was led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in north-west England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But when prosecutors began to present their evidence, Rudakubana interrupted them, shouting that he was feeling unwell and wanted to see a paramedic.

Goose ordered the accused to move away when he continued to shout. A person in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” since Rudakubana was taken out.

The hearing continued without him.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack happened on the first day of summer vacation when 26 girls “gathered around tables making bracelets and singing along to Taylor Swift songs.”

Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, burst in and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.

The court was shown footage of the suspect arriving at Hart Space in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams broke out, and children ran outside in panic, some of them wounded. One girl reached the door, but the attacker pulled her inside. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.

Sighs and sobs could be heard in court as the videos were played.

Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly horrific injuries that are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.” One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, while the other had 85 injuries.

The prosecutor said that Rudakubana had a “long-term obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”

“His only purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said as relatives of the victims watched her in the courtroom.

Heer said that when Rudakubana was taken to the police station, he was heard saying: “It’s a good thing those children are dead, I’m so glad, I’m so happy.”

The killings sparked days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized on false reports that the gunman was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the UK. Some suggested the crime was a jihadist attack and claimed the police and government withheld information.

Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales to Rwandan Christian parents, and investigators have been unable to determine his motivation. Police found documents on his devices on subjects including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs.

In the years before the attack, he was reported to several authorities for his violent interests and actions. No agency has failed to recognize the danger it poses.

In 2019, he called a child counseling center and asked “What should I do if I want to kill someone?” He said he brought the knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.

Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 – once after investigating a school shooting in his class, then for posting pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi on Instagram and for investigating a London terror attack. .

But they concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism because Rudakubana had no apparent political or religious motive. Heer said that “his purpose was to commit mass murder, not for a specific purpose, but as an end in itself.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that the country must face a “new threat” from violent individuals whose combination of motivations tests the traditional definition of terrorism.

“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to achieve the change they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing.

Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack had shattered their lives.

Lucas, 36, who ran a dance class, said “the trauma of being both a victim and a witness was terrible”.

“I can’t give myself sympathy or accept praise, because how can I live knowing that I survived when the children died?” she said.

The 14-year-old survivor, who cannot be named due to a court order, said this while she was physically recovering. “we will all have to live forever with the mental pain from that day.”

“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward,” she said.

The prosecutor read a statement from Alice Da Silva Aguiar’s parents, who said their daughter’s murder “broke our souls.”

We used to cook for three, but now we only cook for two. It doesn’t seem right to me,” they said. “Alice was our meaning in life, so what do we do now?”