On Monday, a British teenager suddenly entered a guilty plea to charges of killing three young girls in a knife attack in northern England in July. The incident shocked the country and sparked days of riots across the country.
On the day when his trial at Liverpool Crown Court was scheduled to begin, 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
He entered a guilty plea to the murder of Bebe King, age 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, age 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, age 9, who attended a dance event with a Taylor Swift theme that was hosted for kids over the summer break in Southport in July.
Rudakubana also admitted to creating the lethal chemical ricin, possessing an Al Qaeda training handbook, and ten counts of attempted murder connected to the incident.
Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday, according to Judge Julian Goose, who stated that a life sentence was unavoidable. Goose pointed out that because the prosecution opening was not anticipated until Tuesday, the victims’ families were not present when Rudakubana entered a guilty plea.
When asked to confirm his name, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the incident, first remained silent, as he had done at all prior hearings, indicating that not guilty pleas had been made in December on his behalf.
However, he acknowledged that he wanted to modify those pleas after speaking with his attorney.
Rudakubana, who was born in Britain, was taken into custody soon after the assault in the sleepy coastal community north of Liverpool.
Police have stated that the incident was not being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, even after the Al Qaeda manual was found.
False social media claims that the accused murderer was a radical Islamist migrant caused widespread unrest in Southport following the killings.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer blamed the rioting on far-right thuggery as the unrest expanded around Britain and included attacks on hotels and mosques that housed asylum seekers. Over 1,500 people were taken into custody.