Girl Who Survived Southport Stabbing Lost Entire Blood Volume, Inquiry Hears

“She Had to Save Herself”: Girl Who Survived Southport Stabbing Lost Entire Blood Volume, Inquiry Hears

A young girl who endured a brutal stabbing attack during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport lost her entire blood volume and survived only through sheer courage and the support of fellow children, a public inquiry in Liverpool has heard.

Known only as C1 for legal reasons, the child was stabbed 33 times during the horrific incident. Her mother delivered a harrowing victim impact statement at the hearing, revealing that her daughter was dragged back into the dance studio and repeatedly attacked while teachers fled to find help. The girl was later airlifted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where she underwent two life-saving surgeries to treat more than thirty serious injuries, having lost over 2.5 litres of blood—effectively her entire blood volume. She had to relearn how to sit, stand, and walk.

“She is so much more than that moment on CCTV,” her mother said. “Those moments carried so much courage and determination to survive, that the CCTV footage does not tell us.”

The full extent of her daughter’s injuries was devastating: 33 stab wounds impacting her diaphragm, kidneys, lungs, and even the nerves and muscles that allowed her to move her arms. Her waist was only 27 centimeters wide, and the kitchen knife used in the attack was 17 centimeters long. “The damage was catastrophic,” her mother added.

During the attack, the girl tried to escape the dance studio to find her father outside but became caught in a crush at the top of the stairs. Her mother recounted her daughter’s heartbreaking memory of attempting to protect others during the chaos. “She talks quietly of how she put her arms around the girls as he began to attack them,” she said.

“She tells me with such clarity that a moment came where one of the girls was able to get up—she put the girl's hand on the handrail and told her to go, to get down the stairs—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.'”

Bleeding from multiple defensive wounds to her arms and shoulders, C1 managed to escape the building. “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 eleven seconds she is out of sight. And then there she is again. She has stood up after enduring another attack of more than twenty 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.”

Her mother emphasized that her survival was not due to adult intervention in those critical moments. “The most painful of truths for us... and what has been most devastating to come to terms with, is that there were no adults to help... She was only supported by other children. The courage and strength she found leaves me crushed, but in complete awe.”

While she expressed gratitude for the teachers’ actions in shielding other children and calling for help, the mother said, “When the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself.”

Sir Adrian, in his opening remarks to the inquiry, described the attacker Rudakubana as someone who “posed a very serious and significant risk of violent harm, with a particular and known predilection for knife crime.”

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from ITV  2025-07-11