EXCLUSIVE: A body language expert has weighed in on the video of Axel Rudakubana in a taxi just a week before the Southport stabbings, indicating he was ‘someone prepared to attack’
The sick child-killer Axel Rudakubana displayed “aggression” like “how dogs growl at people they perceive as predators,” according to a body language expert.
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced Thursday (January 23) to a minimum term of 52 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to three charges of murder; 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife.
He launched an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last summer, killing Alice Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King. The grim case shocked the nation, with misinformation about the suspect leading to widespread, racially-motivated riots around the UK.
In the wake of Rudakubana’s sentencing, chilling dashcam footage emerged showing the moment he was convinced to leave a taxi by his father. It’s feared he was trying to go back to his old school, where he was plotting a terrible massacre.
In a desperate bid to prevent his son from making the 15-mile journey to the school, Alphonse pleads with the taxi driver not to take him. It was just a week before the killer would murder the three girls.
Leading UK body language expert Nick Davies has analysed the harrowing clip and said Rudakubana was “ready to attack”.
“His verbal responses are very short and direct, which happens when we have a download of adrenaline and noradrenaline, and longer communication shuts down when someone prepares to attack,” Davies told the Daily Star.
He added: “There are clear signs of serious mental illness in a lot of his behaviour (as has been reported over time), and he appears to respond by sulking that his father temporarily thwarts his attempt at this most heinous crime.”
Davies also drew some similarities between Rudakubana’s unhinged mugshot and a scared canine. “Curling lips back and showing teeth can be a sign of imminent danger, think of how dogs growl at people they perceive as predators,” said Davies. “But what is prevalent is that his anger appears to be so deep-seated, that he cannot prevent this from showing, even in his police photograph.
“As a therapist who specialises in PTSD and trauma, often people who commit these evil crimes have been subject to cruel abuse themselves in childhood.”
Following the attack last year, rumours around Rudakubana’s identity incorrectly claimed the killer was as Muslim and an asylum seeker.
After Rudakubana’s guilty plea lifted reporting restrictions, church leaders addressed the speculation, saying: “Axel was born and went to school in the United Kingdom, he has autism and has struggled with mental health issues.”