Axel Muganwa Rudakubana has admitted killing three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club last year, along with the attempted murder of 10 others, and three other charges – including possessing Al-Qaeda material. Bebe King, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe were all stabbed to death by Rudakubana. The details of Rudakubana’s past, which was filled with acts of violence from a young age, have been explored by the BBC’s Judith Moritz.
According to Moritz, Rudakubana was a person who was considered aggressive from an early age. His family was moved to Britain as refugees from Rwanda, a country where Rudakubana’s father was a high-ranking member of the Interahamwe militia. Rudakubana himself was expelled from at least two schools for altercations with other students. He was sent to a school that specialized in helping troubled teenage boys, but even there, his violent behavior continued.
As an adult, Rudakubana retained the same violent streak. He was arrested several times for different offenses, including assaulting a police officer. He was imprisoned for more than eight years for robbing a woman in 2002 while armed with a large knife. The jury in this case found that Rudakubana, who was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, was a danger to the public.
During his trial for the murders and other charges, the court heard that Rudakubana had spent the days before the attack downloading extremist material from the jailed leader of the UK branch of Al-Shabab. While Rudakubana’s past was marked by violence, it did not indicate any links to extremist groups or terrorist activities before the Taylor Swift-themed holiday club attack. Rudakubana will be sentenced in September
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