Mum’s horror at telling young daughter her friend died in Southport stabbing

Mother Charlotte Brown has spoken out about the unimaginable task of having to tell her daughter that her friend was killed in the Southport attack.

Charlotte’s eight-year-old daughter Poppy went to school with Alice Aguiar, who was killed in the stabbing attack at a dance class on Monday.

She also had to tell her daughter that Leanne Lucas, who teaches another class Poppy attends, was injured in the attack in the Merseyside town.

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The mum has now spoken out about how she spoke to Poppy about what happened, telling the BBC ‘we’ve been open and honest’.

Charlotte said: ‘I think you have to let them ask the questions and you have to be ready to answer them.’

She took the attitude that ‘no question is a bad question’.

Poppy goes to Churchtown Primary School in Southport, where Alice was also a pupil in the year above. The two friends went to choir together.

After finding out about what happened, Poppy told her mother that Alice was a beautiful singer and often got the solos in choir.

She added that ‘she’ll be a big miss,’ after Charlotte told her daughter the news.

Axel Rudakubana, 17, has now been charged with the murders of three girls – Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – at the dance class.

Ms Lucas, who was running the Taylor Swift-themed dance class, is believed to currently be recovering in hospital.

Eight other children suffered knife wounds – with five of them in a critical condition – while two adults were also seriously hurt.

Charlotte found out about Monday’s attack from a friend and said it was impossible to keep what happened from her daughter, explaining that ‘Poppy was asking over and over again what happened’.

They both remember seeing lots of emergency vehicles on Monday, and then Poppy said her mother told her there had been an attack at a dance session.

Poppy said even when they didn’t know names, she ‘knew’ her friend Alice would have been at the class.

She added: ‘And when we found out she was in hospital I crossed my fingers.’

Charlotte went on to say she doesn’t think Poppy has ‘fully got it’ that her friend has gone but that she’s just continuing to let her ask questions.

The mother and daughter have been to the cordon twice already to lay flowers for Alice, as Charlotte says it’s important for Poppy to ‘see the love and support’ for those who have lost their lives.

‘It made me feel as though I was giving them to Alice,’ Poppy said.

Charlotte said there was one question from her daughter she couldn’t answer though – Poppy asked her mother why the attack happened.

‘I don’t think anyone can answer that, sweetie pie,’ Charlotte told Poppy as they attended the vigil for the three girls who died.

Rudakubana is also accused of the attempted murder of two adults, yoga class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, as well as the attempted murder of the eight other children and possession of a kitchen knife with a curved blade.

A provisional date of January 20 next year for a six-week trial has been set, and the suspect was remanded into youth detention accommodation.

Charlotte said her daughter was more unsettled by the rioting that happened after the stabbing attacks.

Charlotte said: ‘She was petrified that it was going to come down her road and we had to explain to her that there were lots of police.

‘The people that were involved should be (ashamed), they really should.’

Disorder has broken out in some towns in England, with more than 100 people arrested at a protest in Whitehall on Wednesday night, while there was also unrest in Hartlepool, Manchester and Aldershot.

The string of violent incidents follows similar scenes in Southport on Tuesday, where demonstrators attacked police and set cars on fire.

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