By Canadian Press

Teen charged in English dance class stabbings in court on poison and terror charges

Oct 30, 2024 | 4:46 AM

LONDON (AP) — The teen charged with killing three girls and wounding 10 other people in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class appeared in court on Wednesday to face new charges of possessing a deadly poison and a terror charge for possessing an al-Qaida manual.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, refused to speak as he appeared briefly in Westminster Magistrates’ Court by video link from jail for the hearing.

Rudakubana, who is also charged with murdering three girls and stabbing 10 other people on July 29, was charged Tuesday with producing the poison ricin that was found in a search of his home, Merseyside Police said. Police also found a document on his computer that included an al-Qaida training manual titled: “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants.”

Ricin is derived from the castor bean plant and is one of the world’s deadliest toxins. It has no known vaccine or antidote and kills cells by preventing them from making proteins.

Rudakubana had been charged in August with the stabbings in the community of Southport that police on Tuesday stressed have not been classed as a “terrorist incident” because the motive is not yet known. Police issued the new charges of producing a poison and possessing a terrorism manual on Tuesday.

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The stabbing occurred on the first week of summer vacation as about two dozen young girls danced to music by Swift at Hart Space, a community center that hosted everything from pregnancy workshops to women’s boot camps.

Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the seaside town of Southport in northwest England.

He also has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were seriously wounded. Leanne Lucas, who led the class, and John Hayes, who worked in a business nearby and ran to help, were credited by police with trying to protect the children.

The stabbings fueled far-right activists to stoke anger at immigrants and Muslims after social media falsely identified the suspect — then unnamed — as an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat.

Within hours of a community vigil to mourn the Southport victims, an unruly mob attacked a mosque near the dance studio and tossed bricks and beer bottles at law enforcement officers and set fire to a police van.

Rioting spread across England and Northern Ireland that lasted a week. More than 1,200 people were arrested for the disorder and hundreds have been jailed.

Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan parents, police said later. British media reported that he was raised Christian.

Brian Melley, The Associated Press