Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was murdered in the Southport attack along with Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party on July 29 last year
The mum of one of the little girls stabbed to death in Southport last year has spoken out for the first time, saying their family “were always happy” and “had everything” until tragedy struck.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was murdered along with Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party after Axel Rudakubana, 18, stormed into the building and launched a frenzied knife attack on July 29 last year. Nearly seven months on, Alice’s mum Alex Aguiar said their small family of three “were always happy” until the youngster’s tragic death.
Paying tribute to her daughter, Alex shared how Alice’s love for dance began at just 16 months old, before she went on to join Southport Dance Academy aged four.
She said: “Alice started baby ballet when she was 16 months old and then just carried on. When she was four, she went to Southport Dance Academy and from then on Heidi [Liddle] was her ballet teacher.
“She started doing street dance two years ago in the same dance academy but then she stopped after Heidi went off on maternity leave. She was fuming. She kept on doing ballet on Saturdays and then she used to street dance. On Thursdays she would do cheerleading at the YMCA and the choir in the school every Tuesday,” she told the Liverpool Echo.
Alice was an only child to Alex and husband Sergio, who say they were a happy trio who “had everything”. Alex continued: “In the weekends we would spend time together, we would go to friends’ houses, go out for meals. We were always happy to be us three, we had everything so what else could we have asked for.”
Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was jailed for a minimum term of 52 years for the three murders and attempted murder of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons – as well as class instructor Ms Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Alex, 34, is now focusing her efforts on building a legacy for Alice, through projects which she plans to share in coming weeks and months. The caring assistant is receiving help from Sarah Radley-Buck, 33, from PWR BOX Gym in Southport, with one-on-one fitness sessions in the town centre for free. Sarah said: “I have lots of memories of Alice beaming out of school, telling me lots of stories.
“She was so happy and so funny. Things like parties, the school disco where Alice would have the longest hair.” Alex continued: “Alice and Briar would do a video call before the disco saying what they were going to wear. They all had to be the same.”
Alex and Sergio moved to Southport in 2010 to join Sergio’s brother who was living in the area, and Alice enrolled at Churchtown Primary School where “her class was her family” due to her being an only child, Alex said. The mum says she feels at home in Southport, with no need to return to her native Portugal where the majority of her family live.
She said: “Everyone has been incredible, people who don’t know us and we’re not from here and we’ve got so much help. People have been very kind, wanting to help us, we didn’t expect that. We feel at home and we don’t feel like we have to go back.”
