A Sky News reporter broke down in tears live on air while reading distressing details from the sentencing hearing of Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana.
Sarah Jane Mee was relaying details provided by her colleagues from inside Liverpool Crown Court when she paused and said she wanted to ‘take a breath’.
Mee had been interviewing Liverpool Muslim Council chief executive Tawhid Islam who was talking about the importance of communities coming together.
She then began to talk about the evidence given in court about the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed class in The Hart Space in Southport, Merseyside, last July.
Mee told viewers: ‘Bear with me because we’ve got a liveblog up and running, SkyNews.com, we’re not allowed inside the courtroom with cameras until sentencing so my colleagues are inside giving us the detail of what’s happening
‘I’ve just got to warn you what I’m about to relay to you is really distressing, as you would expect from this case. This is the prosecutor Deanna Heer KC who’s continuing to describe the attack back in July.
‘She says businessman Jonathan Hayes who was an office building in the Hart Space approached Rudakubana who swiped with a knife as he tried to grab hold of the weapon. Hayes was stabbed in the leg and fell to the ground, shouting for help.
‘The court goes onto hear that window cleaners who were driving past saw the class instructor Leanne Lucas covered in blood, shouting someone’s stabbing the kids.
Sarah Jane Mee was reporting outside Liverpool Crown Court during the sentencing today
Sarah Jane Mee had been interviewing Liverpool Muslim Council chief executive Tawhid Islam today when she relayed evidence given in Liverpool Crown Court and broke down in tears
An artist’s sketch of Axel Rudakubana shouting from the dock at Liverpool Crown Court today
‘One went into the building but retreated when he saw Rudakubana at the top of the stairs holding a knife. At the top of the stairs they found the attacker standing over the body of Bebe King, holding a kitchen knife.
RTS-award winning Sky News host Sarah Jane Mee is mother-of-two
Sarah Jane Mee hosts The UK Tonight show on Sky News weeknights at 8pm, having previously presented Breakfast and The Sarah-Jane Mee show.
The 46-year-old has also worked for ITV and Sky Sports as well as presenting on radio including Heart, BBC 5Live, LBC and Virgin Radio.
Mee and her team won a Royal Television Society award for their coverage of the Brussels terror attack in 2016.
She is married to Ben Richardson and they had a daughter named Rae Brenda Richardson born in June 2020.
Mee is also stepmother to Mr Richardson’s son Teddy from a previous relationship.
‘One of the window cleaners picked her up and carried her out of the building, screaming at the extent of her injuries. The court hears that police arrived at the scene to find people in a state of panic.’
Mee then began to tear up off camera as she said: ‘Ah, just take a breath after that.’
There was then a pause as she composed herself, and she continued: ‘Right, erm Tarwin, sorry, it’s just so distressing isn’t it.’
He agreed: ‘It really is.’
Mee then continued: ‘Look, we’re here for those girls and the families, so try not to get upset because it’s such an important day for them and this is horror that came to their door.’
In court today, the full horror of the ‘sadistic’ murders of the three children was outlined.
The court was told the 18-year-old said ‘I’m glad they’re dead’ as he was held in a custody suite after killing the three girls at the dance class.
Prosecutors said the injuries suffered by the Southport murder victims were ‘difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature’.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29.
The defendant, who was 17 at the time of the killings, admitted their murders as well as the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Ms Lucas and Mr Hayes.
The judge, Mr Justice Goose, ordered Rudakubana to leave the dock shortly after the start of the hearing as he shouted repeatedly.
One family member shouted ‘coward’, while others shook their heads as he left.
Rudakubana had been shouting: ‘It’s not my fault, I feel ill’, and repeatedly shouted for a paramedic.
The court heard the Rudakubana’s killings were a ‘pre-meditated, planned knife attack upon multiple victims, principally young girls, intending to kill them’.
When the judge tried to carry on with the case, Rudakubana shouted: ‘Don’t continue.’
Horrific CCTV was played to the court including footage showing one child trying to leave the building but being pulled back in.
Gasps and sobs were heard from the public gallery as the girl was seen to re-emerge and collapse on the floor outside.
One woman in the public gallery put her hand over her face and sobbed, being comforted by those sitting next to her, as the video was played.
Family members were given the option to leave court ahead of CCTV being played, but all remained in the court.
More than 30 members of the victims’ families were in the public gallery of the court for the sentencing and the court heard there were others in an annexe.
