The mother of Elsie Dot Stancombe has vowed not to let her daughter's killer "ruin another one of my daughters' lives" as she revealed heartbreaking details two years on from the Southport attack. Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, along with Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed when Axel Rudakubana launched a horrifying attack on a Taylor Swift-themed workshop in the town on July 29, 2024.
Attack 'could and should have been prevented'
The Southport Inquiry found the attack "could and should have been prevented" if agencies had taken steps to stop the attacker, who was 17 at the time. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years in January last year.
Elsie's mother, Jenni Stancombe, has since spoken on Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum podcast, released this week, where she discussed the impact the murder has had on Elsie's younger sister, Rosie, who is now five years old, and the wider family.
Impact on younger sister
She said: "When Taylor Swift comes on, she turns it off, she doesn't like Taylor Swift very much anymore. I've never said anything to her, and I'm like how do you know these things?" Describing the moment she had to tell her youngest daughter the horrific news two days after the attack, she told her sister Elsie had "gone to heaven with Nana Tina".
She said: "She said, 'Why?' And I said, 'a bad man hurt her, but it wasn't her fault. She did nothing wrong. Don't ever think she did anything wrong because she did nothing wrong'."
Promise of a normal childhood
Despite the lasting trauma, Jenni and her husband Dave, known to her and friends as Day, made a promise to give their youngest daughter as normal a childhood as they can. She continued: "Me and Day both committed to that, that we have to try and give her as normal life as possible. I will not let that person [Rudakubana] ruin another one of my daughters' lives. He took one away from me. I will not give him the satisfaction of ruining another."
Remembering Elsie, Jenni said she was an emotionally intelligent and articulate little girl who threw herself into everything she did. Speaking through tears, she said: "I used to say I'd won the lottery of life. I had two beautiful healthy little girls. I had a good job, I enjoyed my job. I had the best husband. We'd moved to what I classed as our forever home. I'd won the lottery of life, I wanted for nothing. People say you could always want more, I didn't want nothing else."
The day of the attack
Looking back on the day of the attack, it was the only day Jenni and Dave had planned to spend together. She dropped Elsie off and watched her run off, but she soon received the life-changing phone call. Jenni said: "I got a phone call that said something bad was happening, and I needed to get there. I remember I screamed, Day knew from the scream."
"When we got there it was chaos," Jenni said. "Someone walked passed me and he spoke to Day, then Day just knelt down in front of me."
Charitable foundation
Jenni, along with Dave, has set up Elsie's Story, a charitable foundation in memory of her eldest daughter which helps fund medical care, bereavement services, community events and emotional support in Southport and across the country.
