Man who helped Southport knife victims recalls ‘horror’ of that day

Father-of-two Joel Verite, 26, was among the first on the scene as Southport killer Axel Rudakubana launched his attack.

Flowers and tributes outside the Atkinson Art Centre Southport in tribute to the victims (PA)

A man who was among the first on the scene of the Southport knife attack where three girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party has said “it was just something you literally see in a horror film”.

At one point personal trainer Joel Verite, 26, who ran to the studio three times to try to help the children reach safety, including two of the girls who eventually died, came face to face with killer Axel Rudakubana.

Mr Verite told The Sun: “He’s looked at me. He had his hood up and a big kitchen knife. I just don’t understand how anyone can do anything like that to innocent girls. He definitely doesn’t deserve to be alive.”

From left, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, who died in the Southport attack (Merseyside Police/PA)

Mr Verite had been on a break from helping a friend with his window-cleaning business on July 29 last year when they noticed a “commotion” and saw yoga teacher Leanne Lucas slumped against a car.

She had a big wound on her shoulder and told him that a man – Rudakubana, who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years last month – had launched a knife attack at the dance party.

Ms Lucas had managed to call police, and Mr Verite told them to hurry to the scene.

He ran to the studio but was diverted by the sound of a car horn where a woman had four or five girls in the back seat of the vehicle.

He said he saw the “heartbreaking” sight of an injured child, picked her up and started running and shouting for help.

Southport incident — A forensic investigator in Hart Street, Southport, where three children died and eight were injured (James Speakman/PA)

Mr Verite took his T-shirt off to help stem the blood and he and his friend started performing CPR on the girl they later discovered was nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.

Alice died alongside Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Eight children and two adults were injured.

Mr Verite told the paper he went to the studio and was on the staircase when Rudakubana appeared: “I looked up and literally he’s come and circled round and looked at me.

“He’s on the top of the landing, looking at me on the staircase, and he’s scurried back off into the room. He had his hood up and a big kitchen knife.

“I’m literally kind of frozen and I’m standing on the stairs and was like: ‘What the f*** do I do?’.

“It’s easy for people to think, ‘I would have done this and that’ when you watch films, but I’ll tell you now, until you’re in that situation, you think very differently.

“Especially with having my two young ones as well. I might not be here today if I did actually do what I probably really wanted to do.”

He said: “The horror will live with me forever.”

Mr Verite smashed a glass door so Rudakubana could not lock the building and left to find something to use as a weapon.

As the police and paramedics arrived, Mr Verite managed to pick Bebe up from the floor and ran and shouted for help.

He then ran back to the studio for a third time but armed officers told him to help with first aid.

Mr Verite said he and his friend cried as they stayed with an injured girl and fetched equipment for the paramedics.

He saw a paramedic triage the victims and have to decide which child needed the most urgent care.

The father of two said the first thing he did when he got home was to hug his daughter, who was nine months old at the time.

He told the newspaper: “It was hard seeing her because, while it was nice, I was also thinking, ‘Someone’s just lost theirs’.”