The family of one of the victims of the Southport attack are not ready to speak out publicly yet following the heartbreaking death of their daughter.
Families of two young girls who were murdered by Axel Rudakubana whilst at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport appeared on Good Morning Britain on Monday morning, reports the Mirror.
They spoke with Susanna Reid detailing the unimaginable ordeal they’ve experienced over the past seven months.
However, there was one family missing from the conversation. The parents of nine-year-old Alice Da Silva Aguiar chose not to appear on the morning show. Susanna explained: “The parents of Alice have told us that they don’t feel ready to speak yet, but they’re supportive of the other families who have chosen to speak with us.”
During the same programme, the parents of Elsie Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, voiced their full support for an inquiry into the horrific attack, while stressing that they felt they should be involved in deciding exactly what any such inquiry should and shouldn’t look at.
Elsie’s mum Jenni Stancombe told GMB: “It will hold people to account for some of the decisions that they made and as a result allowed this to happen.” Bebe King’s mother, speaking anonymously to the programme to protect her family’s privacy, agreed. She said: “Our girls just need to be safe, our children need to be safer, and protected.” The families’ legal representative also emphasised that they felt they should be allowed to determine what was and wasn’t looked at in the scope of an inquiry.
The families also revealed that Taylor Swift invited them to Wembley following the attack. “Oh god, if Elsie knew that Taylor knew her, that all her dreams had come true,” Jenni said.
Her dad David said: “She [Taylor] kept a couple of pictures as well didn’t she?” Elsie’s mum added: “Yeah we showed her the pictures and she went ‘can I keep these?'”
The parents explained further: “We met her back in Wembley, she asked to meet us personally and she was very lovely. It was quite overwhelming but it was, it felt like we needed to do it. It was all these little glimmers that we had to try and find, we needed to find some light in the dark and it was.”