A mum of a young girl injured in the attacks has given evidence at the Southport Inquiry

A mother has spoken of the remarkable bravery her 7-year-old daughter showed as she “fought like hell” to twice escape from Southport killer Axel Rudakubana – and how she helped other girls on the day of the horrific attacks.

The mum was speaking on the second day of the inquiry into the horrendous events that unfolded during a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in the seaside town on July 29 last summer, the Liverpool Echo reported.

She delivered remarkable testimony to the inquiry as she explained in detail how her little girl defied the odds to twice escape from the killer’s clutches – and how she battled to survive despite her injuries.

On an emotional day in Liverpool Town Hall, the inquiry, chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford, heard from the parents of four young children who were badly injured in the attack at the Hart Space centre last summer, in which Elsie Stancombe, 7, Bebe King, 6 and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were tragically killed.

The identities of the surviving children and their parents are protected. The mother of a little girl referred to as C1, who was seven at the time she attended the Taylor Swift event, gave evidence.

She told the inquiry that prior to the attack, her daughter was “beautiful, articulate and fun loving”. She said she had “boundless, creative energy” and said she and her husband called her “our little hippie” because she was ‘always completely carefree’.

“She does not live that way anymore,” the mum continued. “I am here today to share some of her story and journey. I want to tell you of her bravery and strength and how hard she is fighting, still now to survive.”

The mother then spoke about the sentencing of Rudakubana earlier this year, as he was sent to prison for a minimum of 52 years for his crimes.

The mum said: “The court and public listened to the horrific details of her injuries and were shown CCTV footage of her being dragged back into the building. That is how she became known in this nightmare.”

In harrowing testimony, she said her daughter lost her entire blood volume, over 2.5 litres, after the attack. She was airlifted to Alder Hey where she had two lifesaving surgeries to treat 33 stab wounds.

After four days sedated and ventilated, she had to learn to sit, stand and walk again. She had intensive therapy and physio so that she could use her hands and fingers again.

She is still physically recovering, her mother said. She added: “Her injuries were vast and covered so much of her body and organs.

“Thirty-three stab wounds. Her diaphragm, kidneys, lungs, nerves, tendons and muscles all had multiple injuries. The damage was catastrophic. The hours and days that followed the attack were a living hell.”

Holding back tears, the mum – who was sat beside her husband while giving evidence – bravely detailed the remarkable actions of her little girl inside the Hart Space, as she tried to save her life and the lives of other children who were being attacked by Rudakubana.

She said: “One of the most painful of truths for us though is that there were no adults to help her during both of her attacks. She was only supported by other children.

“The courage and strength she found leaves me crushed, but in complete awe. I don’t for a moment doubt that the actions of the teachers there that day saved lives. They escaped to call the police and flag down help, they shielded other children.

“I am grateful for what they did for those girls. But when the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself.

“Prior to (our daughter) being picked up outside the Hart Space, by a wonderful man, who took her to safety, she had fought like hell, to get herself out of that building, twice.

“And that reality is painful – our children fought alone, they shielded each other, comforted each other, and helped each other and that must be remembered.”

She added: “(My daughter) tells me that she had tried to find a way out. There was only one way to safety, to find her dad and that was down the stairs.

“Everyone was trying to push through to follow Leanne (Lucas) out of the building. She describes it as a stampede. In the chaos she was knocked over and found herself trapped and huddled with two other children at the top of the stairs.

“She talks of how she put her arms around the girls as [Rudakubana] began to attack them. She tells me with such clarity that a moment came where one of the girls was able to get up, she told her to go, and she did. The attack continued, she was still holding another girl.

“”I crouched over the top of her”, she says. “I told her it would be okay”. She recalls this with such purpose and determination, like it was her responsibility.

The mum said that as the attack continued, her daughter fell forwards and down the stairs before pulling herself up on the middle landing. She yelled at the other girl she had been shielding to follow her, but the killer started coming after her and she had to run.

She said: “She tells me how she couldn’t breathe, and things were getting fuzzy — she had, we believe about five or six stab wounds by this point.

“Somehow, she emerges from the building — and we see her, for a brief moment on CCTV. Escaping. Finding help. Showing so much strength. But her arm is badly injured and it’s trailing behind, and he grabs it. In a flash of struggle, she’s gone again.

“For 11 seconds she is out of sight. And then there she is again. She has stood up after enduring another attack of more than 20 stab wounds to her back and shoulders.

“She stumbles outside to the windows reaching for help. She eventually falls and soon after is carried to safety. She may be a survivor of this attack, but she is still trying to survive this, every single day.”

The mum says she and her husband tell their daughter how brave she was, how proud of her they are that she was able to help other girls and how important what she did that day was.

“She looks back at what she could or should have done differently and how this might have changed the outcome. ‘I could have thrown the beads, so he slipped. We could have jumped out the window’. She struggles to understand how she survived.”

“She is grieving for children she didn’t know before that day. Her trauma manifests in panic attacks and flashbacks that make her daily life difficult and exhausting.

“She suffers from extreme separation anxiety, meaning she can’t attend school full time, and I need to be available to check in through the day, when she needs me.

“She is trying to make sense of something that makes no sense. She needs us to guarantee her safety in a world where we can’t. It is like sucking out poison.”

She added: “Not a day goes by where I don’t become overwhelmed with relief that she is still here. A feeling often replaced quickly with guilt, fear, grief and devastation at the magnitude of what we are left to carry her through.

“She is often sad and angry. Angry that someone was able to take such a special day from her. To harm her friends. To take their love of dance and joy of their summer away from them.

“To so brutally transform her body in moments and leave her with massive scarring that she will have to look at every day for the rest of her life.”

But despite what she went through, the mum says her daughter carries “incredible empathy and maturity”.

She said: “She asks about the other girls and how everyone is coping. She tells me it’s not my fault that she was there, and that she knows I’d just tried to plan something nice. It completely shatters me to hear that.

“Some days she is able to hold so much empathy for what he perhaps was feeling or went through. What his life may have been like to do this.

“‘Did he have friends? Were people not kind to him?’ She asks me, confused, ‘Could he not talk to his parents? Why did no one help him?'”

“I haven’t found the words for these conversations yet and I muddle through – but one day she will learn the outcome of this inquiry and I am terrified that it will be earth-shattering for her and we will have to begin her recovery again.”

In a final message to all the girls who attended the dance class on that day, the mum said: “We are all right here with you as you learn how to survive this.

“And to my darling (daughter). You are pure magic, we are so proud of you, and we love you so much.”