'I lived next door to Axel Rudakubana - and still have nightmares about him'

The quiet rural village of Banks was largely unknown to most of the world until it was thrust into the limelight for the most tragic of reasons on July 29, 2024.

Armed police descended on a small, unassuming cul-de-sac in West Lancashire, less than two hours after a Cardiff-born Axel Rudakubana launched a premeditated 12-minute attack on innocent children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Hart Street, Southport.

As the devastating news broke that Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, had tragically lost their lives and many more were critically injured, one specific house on Old School Close, four miles away, became the focus of a police investigation. The reason being that this seemingly ordinary property had been the home of Axel Rudakubana for seven years, who was sentenced to 52 years this week for the horrific crimes he committed.

On that fateful hot summer day, Rudakubana left his home on Old School Close around 11.30am, dressed in a green jumper, black tracksuit trousers and a surgical mask, and headed to a small business estate off Hart Street where he unleashed terror and violence. Armed police descended on the village and reached his home at 1.29pm, approximately an hour and a half after the then-17 year old was apprehended at the scene.

Armed police stormed the properties adjacent to the two-bedroom semi where he resided with his parents and older brother. A local woman told the Liverpool Echo that both the Co-Op and Post Office on Hoole Lane were "locked down" as police worked to secure the surroundings and cordon off the road. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our free crime newsletter here

Caroline, who lived next door to the Rudakubana family but has since moved away from the area, explained how she thought the now 18-year-old was simply a "normal, moody teenager". She said: "To us, it was just a family living next door who kept themselves to themselves, I thought the teenage son was a bit weird, like he just stared at you and didn't really say anything at all."

"I just put that down to him being a teenager but he did used to stare. He'd stare at me like he was staring right through me. I just thought he was a normal, moody teenager. The family themselves seemed normal, the mum used to always forget to put the handbrake on and I would knock on and say 'your car's rolled down again, you need to move it' and she would say 'no, no, I'll get my husband to do it'."

"[The dad] would enter into a bit more conversation but it was just general chit chat. We had no problems living next to them, it was just a family getting on and kept themselves to themselves."

On the day of the attack, Caroline was working from her home as she often does, not having a chance to look at the news during what seemed like an ordinary summer day. However, she became aware of police arriving outside her home and when she ventured downstairs, she encountered an armed police officer pointing a rifle at her in the doorway of her open backdoor. He instructed her to get in the house and close the door.

In the days that followed the horrific incident on Hart Lane, local police shut down the close and set up a cordon which lasted for weeks. Multiple different police forces helped with the Merseyside Police-directed search of Rudakubana's residence.

Caroline said residents overheard threats being shouted past the barricades in the weeks that followed, prompting fire safety assessments of nearby homes out of concern the perpetrator's might be targeted.

She went on: "The fact that I've moved out the area means I feel so much more relieved and settled because even though the events of the day don't affect me, they kind of did because of what's gone on next door."

"We were constantly questioned by police, constantly having police there, constantly having people coming down making threats. My son didn't want to live here so he lived with his grandma for months."

"I had to deal with the trauma of having a gun pointed in my face when police first came to the close, that's upsetting, and then finding out there were chemicals next door, I don't want to have that anymore. They're not the memories I want to remember, I don't want that."

She concluded: "It's not Old School Close anymore, it's the forgotten close. No crime was committed there but our lives were turned upside down."

Now that justice has been delivered to the killer who hid in plain sight within a peaceful village, leading an unremarkable life while harbouring a fascination with violence, murder, and genocide, residents have begun to speak out. The community wants to be known for for the resilience demonstrated in the aftermath of the events.

Debs Walmsley, from Deb'z Deli, located just a stone's throw from Old School Close and opposite St Stephen's Institute and Club, recounted how the community banded together following the attack. "We had a lot of customers put money in a pot for the police officers who were standing in the sun all day on the street," she told the ECHO.

"We didn't ask people to do it, people wanted to do it. Some people were putting in £10 or £20 at a time to go towards food for the officers. Every morning we would take them some food and when they came to get a drink or some food, it was already paid for."

When asked what the community has been like since the increased police and media attention following the tragedy, a man working in a local business said: "We are a decent community, we care about each other."

Following the attack, children's summer activities and events were cancelled in village, as they were in Southport. But that didn't hold back Annie Ives, a trustee of The Hub, a local community centre operated primarily by volunteers nestled away down a country path close to Tarleton Bypass.

Having lived in Banks for more than 35 years, she was stunned by the event and organized a community gathering the subsequent week, ensuring round-the-clock security to comfort families. Annie said: "It was very emotional, I know how close this village is and I know people want to support what's going on in the village. For Banks to have that negative connotation to it, this quiet, sleepy, rural village, just a couple of miles from Southport, it's sad."

"To think [the attack] is going to tarnish the name of Banks, that's what people are upset about when that's not the case at all, it's a very close village with people wanting to help each other."

Annie, who has been a trustee at The Hub since 2021, explained her shock at not knowing Rudakubana, despite having lived in the village for many years prior to the incident. She said: "One thing that has also been apparent is that the family were just unknown, which is very unusual because apparently they've lived here for seven years."

"Nobody knows anything about them and I have friends who live across from the close and they've never even seen them. It's very unusual."

One individual who has been a consistent and reassuring presence for those in the village is resident and local councillor Thomas de Freitas. Living just five minutes from Rudakubana's home, Thomas was entirely unaware of his and his family's presence in Banks.

He shared: "It's so strange, no one around the village really saw them or knew them. No one I have spoken to knew the family. Some people told me they saw the family around now and then but no one has said they knew them, it's odd."

Following the police activity and disturbance in the village, from armed officers to internet trolls, Thomas said he sought to reassure those on Old School Close and throughout the village. "It's been a difficult time for everyone in the village," he stated.

"Before this, it was just a little-known village just north of Southport. Our village's name is now associated with all this terrible stuff. Residents at the time were grappling with all sorts of issues. People living in the cordon were worried, they didn't know what was happening, even things like not being able to get their bins emptied because of the cordon being in place. We quickly organised a community meeting with the villagers where we addressed their concerns and provided them with the updates we could give them at the time."

Axel Rudakubana, 18, of Old School Close, Banks, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, January 23. A public inquiry will follow, questions will be asked and complex answers are needed.

The teenager's family remain in hiding, being forced to leave the village following the horrifying acts committed by Rudakubana. However, the community of Banks is now prepared to move forward, leaving the distressing past behind and focusing on the future

This is the story of how one teenager sent shockwaves through the lives of individuals who never knew he existed, and three little girls paying the tragic price of state failings in the years leading up to July 29, 2024.