Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Southport stabbings suspect Axel Rudakubana (Elizabeth Cook/PA) The 18-year-old accused of killing three girls in a knife attack at a Southport dance class is due to go on trial. Axel Rudakubana, of Banks ...

Axel Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to over 50 years in prison for killing three young girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England last summer. Police’s raid at his house has revealed his ‘longstanding obsession with violence,

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were murdered by Axel Rudakubana last summer.

Here is a timeline of what was known when about Southport killer Axel Rudakubana: Axel Rudakubana becomes known to a range of local agencies due to anxiety, social isolation and challenging behaviour. In October he takes a knife to school, and in December attacks another child with a hockey stick.

A former chairman of the Conservative Party has claimed that the beginning of Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana’s trial was scheduled on the same day as Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration as “a calculated and cynical move by the Labour Government to ‘bury bad news’ behind international headlines”.

The 18-year-old’s disruptions meant he was not in court as the judge handed him one of the longest minimum terms on record.

He was excluded from his secondary school for an incident involving a hockey stick, the PA news agency understands.

The Southport killer said 'I’m glad they’re dead' as he was held in a custody suite after killing three girls at a dance class, the court heard

Axel Rudakubana has been handed a 52 year sentence for the murder of three young girls at a dance class in Southport last summer. | ITV News Granada

Nigel Farage accuses Prime Minister of hiding behind contempt of court argument, saying country needed to know truth about Axel Rudakubana

Rudakubana was referred to the anti-extremism scheme Prevent three times before the murders, amid concerns over his fixation with violence.

Rudakubana cowardly refused to come into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court when he was being sentenced by the judge