The parents of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, recalled the events of July 29 and paid tribute to their daughters, who were tragically killed by Axel Rudakubana
Parents of two of the little girls murdered at a dance class in Southport have paid an emotional tribute to their “angels”.
Speaking for the first time about the tragedy, the parents of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, recalled the events of July 29. Elsie’s mum Jenni, 35, said of her daughter: “Everyone says it, don’t they, that they’re one of a kind? But she truly was.
“It was an honour to be her mum. Sometimes I think people are born special and I genuinely believe she was. Everything she did was pure enthusiasm. It could be the most boring thing like David taking the bins out, and it was like, ‘I’ll come!’ She was grateful for life.”
Elsie’s dad David, 36, added: “On a school day you would have to drag her out of bed. But on a Saturday, she was up at 6.30am, and it was like, ‘Morning Mummy, morning Daddy’.” Bebe’s mother – who cannot be named due to a court order – said: “I literally just think they’re angels. Bebe operated on such a high frequency. She had this innate kindness. She had a spark.
“She was hilarious. She would do impressions. She would try stupid accents. Even when she was a baby she would have me belly laughing. She would come out with the most random stuff. She would do it and look at you and laugh as if to say, ‘I’m dead funny, aren’t I?’ She would give you this hug and say, ‘I love you, Momma’.
“She was the best. Me and her had our own little language. Sometimes we would just look at each other and know what each other was thinking.”
The parents told how they saw their girls for the last time when they drove them to the Taylor Swift dance class at Hart Space studio where they and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were stabbed to death. Describing the moment she dropped her daughter off at 10am, Jenni said she watched Elsie run inside, excited to show her friend her newly pierced ears.
“I watched her sit down and waved her off and I left her,” she said. “I would never ever have put her in danger, ever. I still cut Elsie’s food into tiny bits for the fear. I was probably overly obsessed that she was OK.”
Just before midday, she got a call from another mother, saying: “Something awful has happened. Somebody’s stabbed the kids.” Jenni and David sped there in their car.
“I left the whole house open and got in the car,” she said. “It’s a five-minute drive from ours and we must have got there in a minute. We kept our hands on the horn, going faster and faster, jumping every red light. We were on the other side of the road, people throwing their hands up to us.
“I just didn’t care, I just kept whacking the horn. We got there and just deserted the car in the middle of the road and just ran. And by that point police started trying to push people back.”
Both tried to get inside the studio. David fought with police officers but they held him back. “The police just lifted David off his feet and said, ‘You’re not getting in there, mate’,” Jenni said.
David said: “You knew when you got there how bad it was. No human being should ever have to witness what we witnessed on that day.” Bebe’s dad dropped her at the class while her mum prepared for a wedding. When he went to collect her there were ambulances “all over the place”.
“I asked, ‘What’s going on?’ and somebody said, ‘There’s somebody there stabbing kids’. And it still didn’t register. I got closer and closer and there was no cordon. I walked down the road and there was a house with 10 kids in it. I didn’t really get how serious it was. I was just in shock. All the parents were there. It was madness.”
Bebe’s mum remembered being in Marks & Spencer when he rang. “I was about to put my card in the machine and he called: ‘I can’t believe I’m telling you this but somebody has gone into the dance class with a knife’, and I just ran.”
The families told of how the tragedy has impacted their other children, including Elsie’s younger sibling. David said: “You know you say to your kids every day, every night, ‘I won’t let anything happen to you’?
“How could I say that now?” The families were comforted by a visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales – Kate’s first public outing since finishing chemo. David said: “That meant so much to Jenni. Because it was her first public appearance.
“I won’t say what they said to us but what they shared with us was really, really powerful, and it was a powerful message and heartfelt and it meant a lot.” Bebe’s mum added: “They were very human.” They also met King Charles, with David smiling about the moment Elsie’s sister offered the King a biscuit.
The families spoke out after their girls’ killer was jailed for a minimum of 52 years last month. They refuse to name him, referring to him as “he”, “him” or “the offender”. The 18-year-old murderer also attacked eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes who were all seriously wounded. The parents of nine-year-old Alice did not take part in the interview with the Sunday Times.