A hero grandfather has revealed how he sheltered a dozen children in his home from the Southport attacker – including one who cried ‘I think I’m dying’ after being stabbed – as the businessman seriously wounded in the tragic assault admitted he was ‘sorry he couldn’t do more to help’ the three young victims who died.
Brave Steve, 66, has described the moment he heard a series of bloodcurdling screams erupting from a group of young children running towards him on Monday, just moments after the tragedy unfolded on Hart Street in Southport, north of Liverpool.
The youngsters had been attending a Taylor Swift workshop at a dance school aimed at children aged between seven and 11-years-old, when an intruder entered their building.
Tragically, Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, died from their injuries.
Steve described how he had been in his front garden repairing his brick wall when he heard screams that failed to stop.
Brave grandfather Steve, 66, has described the moment he heard a series of bloodcurdling screams erupting from a group of young children running towards him on Monday, just moments after the tragedy unfolded on Hart Street in Southport, north of Liverpool
Steve, who revealed he is a Hillsborough survivor, said one girl ‘ran straight into my path and she put her arms around me and she said “I’ve been stabbed, I think I’m dying”‘
Floral tributes are left for those who were attacked at the Taylor Swift-themed workshop
Mourners leave floral tributes near the scene in Hart Street, where the three children died
An aerial view of the properties in Hart Street, Southport and their proximity to Hart Studios, where the tragedy occurred on Monday
Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, was fatally wounded in the attack which shocked the nation
Bebe King, aged six, was also killed in the attack on Monday morning
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, aged nine, was one of three children killed in Southport
One young girl, who was injured, appeared to be helping a small group of other children of all ages flee to safety.
He told ITV News: ‘The girl who was leading them all running, saw me and she just ran straight into my path and she put her arms around me and she said ‘I’ve been stabbed, I think I’m dying’.
‘I couldn’t believe what she was saying, she was bleeding on me, and then she said ‘I think I’m dying’. I said ‘you’re not dying, you’re not going to die’.’
The quick-thinking grandfather told the group to get into his house swiftly, where he and his wife then reassured the children, before Steve returned outside to be on guard while holding a hammer.
He said the injured girl, who he described as ‘a hero’ for leading the others to safety, ‘collapsed’ onto the floor of their home, but she did get medical help and he believes she has since been discharged from hospital.
Selfless businessman Johnathan Hayes, 63, said he rushed downstairs from his office in the same building where the attack happened to see if he could help, before he was stabbed
Mr Hayes said of the attacker: ‘He came towards me in a pretty menacing way and I thought he was going to kill me’
He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and underwent surgery, only later discovering that he is lucky to be alive as the blade narrowly missed his femoral artery
Steve, who revealed he is a Hillsborough disaster survivor, said the children had a look of ‘absolute terror’.
As the minutes went on, he helped evacuate more children, including a small youngster that he said looked around three years of age, who was holding their bleeding arm.
He also encouraged brave yoga instructor Leanne Lucas to come out from the toilet she had locked herself into with other youngsters.
Even when police turned up to tell her she was safe, traumatised Ms Lucas did not want to open the door, he added.
He said: ‘She jumped in the way of the knife, she covered two of the kids up to stop them getting stabbed while she was being stabbed. She’s a brave, brave woman.’
In a separate interview with ITV News, selfless businessman Johnathan Hayes, 63, has spoken for the first time about confronting the knifeman as the attack happened.
Rudakubana (pictured as a child) is charged with murdering three little girls and harming 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport with a ‘curved kitchen knife’
Court artist drawing of Rudakubana covering his face as he appeared in the dock
He too heard screaming and shouting coming from the downstairs of the Hart Centre, where he has an office space.
But the company director realised the situation was unusual in that the screams from the children did not stop.
He said: ‘Some of my colleagues got up to look out of the window and it was only at that stage when one of my colleagues witnessed a young girl on the floor, I assume by the entrance of the front door of our building, and said words to the affect “there’s a girl outside bleeding out”.’
Leanne Lucas, who organised the Taylor Swift-themed holiday club, has had life-saving surgery and is now awake, her family said on Wednesday
Mr Hayes rushed downstairs to see if he could help, where he saw another girl with ‘multiple’ stab wounds.
As he looked up, he saw the attacker coming towards him with a knife.
‘He came towards me in a pretty menacing way and I thought he was going to kill me,’ he said.
Putting his arm up to block the attacker, Mr Hayes only realised moments later he had been stabbed in the leg.
One of his colleagues then appeared, causing the knifeman to run off.
They then found a belt to use as a tourniquet to help stem Mr Hayes’s leg wound until the paramedics arrived.
He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and underwent surgery, only later discovering that he is lucky to be alive as the blade narrowly missed his femoral artery.
Mr Hayes is now on the mend and has been discharged home, but he says he has suffered ‘flashbacks’ of what happened and feels regret he ‘couldn’t do more’.
He added: ‘I’m really saddened by everything that happened and I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to help those little girls.’
Yesterday, 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire, appeared in court accused of carrying out the attack that killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.
Rudakubana is also accused of the attempted murders of eight more children, along with dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and Mr Hayes.
The Southport mass stabbings have led to riots on the streets. Pictured: Southport on Tuesday
A street near a mosque goes up in flames as violent thugs took to the streets on Tuesday night
Protests continue: People gathered on Friday in Sunderland city centre holding England flags
He was able to be named for the first time after a reporting restriction was lifted.
The teenager, who refused to speak at his court appearance in Liverpool, had been diagnosed with autism and was ‘unwilling to leave the house’ and talk to his family ‘for a period of time’, the court heard.
Rudakubana was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff in 2006 before moving to the village of Banks in Lancashire in 2013.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC described his medical condition, saying: ‘He has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
‘We understand he has been unwilling to leave the house and communicate with his family for a period of time.’
Judge Andrew Menary condemned the ‘idiotic rioting’ which has broken out since the attack and said he named Rudakubana to fill the information vacuum exploited by ‘others who are up to mischief’.
He said: ‘The idiotic rioting going on at the moment is, in part, fed by the nonsense online that feeds on the vacuum.’
Judge Menary explained what he described as an ‘exceptional’ decision against imposing reporting restrictions sought by both prosecution and defence, which would have granted the defendant anonymity until he turns 18 next Wednesday.
He said he had to balance a risk to the defendant’s family and initial risk to him while settling into custody with the public interest in accurately reporting his identity.
Granting the Daily Mail’s request not to impose restrictions, he said: ‘By continuing to prevent full reporting at this stage has the disadvantage of allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread misinformation in a vacuum and runs the risk that when the information becomes publicly available in six days’ time, that will provide an additional excuse for a fresh round of public disorder.
‘Allowing full reporting will undoubtedly remove some of the misreporting as to the identity of the defendant.’
The judge added: ‘The defendant Axel Rudakubana appears before me having been sent to this court earlier this morning by the Youth Court in respect of multiple charges of murder and attempted murder.
‘The alleged offending in his case is shocking and could hardly be more serious, involving as it does the killing and serious wounding of multiple victims, most of whom were young children, in an incident in Southport on Monday 29 July 2024.’