Harrowing CCTV shows moment little Alice Da Silva Aguiar almost escaped her murderer during Southport attack

At the sentencing hearing of Southport stabbings killer Axel Rudakubana, a judge was shown the moment little Alice Da Silva Aguiar was pulled back into the building by Axel Rudakubana.

Just a short time later, the innocent youngster was stabbed to death.

Liverpool Crown Court has been hearing the incomphrensible details of what happened at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport.

CCTV also showed police arriving at the scene.

Bodyworn footage showed officers enter the building and tell Rudakubana to drop the knife.

They tackle him to the floor and arrest him.

A further clip showed police finding Heidi Liddle and a child in the toilet, sobbing.

The police officer tells Ms Liddle: “Listen, listen, listen, you’re safe.”

Mr Justice Goose said on the day of the attack there were 26 children at the event, “all of whom were happy and enjoying themselves”.

He said Rudakubana targeted these children for the “horrific extreme violence he was intent upon”.

“At 11.45am he arrived, walked into the building up the stairs where he could hear the sound of happy children, in his mind with the intention to murder as many of them as he physically could.

“He wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.”

The judge said: “It was such extreme violence… it is difficult to comprehend why it was done.

“I am sure Rudakubana had the settled determination to carry out these offences and had he been able to, he would have killed each and every child – all 26 of them.”

Rudakubana, 18, of Banks, Lancashire has been detained at Liverpool Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 52 years for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and the attempted murder of eight other children in Southport.

An earlier version of this story has been edited at the request of the victims’ families.