The family of Axel Rudakubana continues to provide testimony before the courts in the United Kingdom, following the conviction of the 17-year-old for fatally stabbing three children in 2024. Axel was sentenced in January 2025 to 52 years in prison after prosecutors revealed that, during his arrest, he expressed satisfaction with the killings, telling police, “I’m glad those kids are dead. It makes me happy. I don’t care.”
In testimony delivered to prosecutors, his older brother, Dion Rudakubana, said he saw Axel leaving the house on the day of the attack with his face covered, but he never imagined he would commit such a horrific crime. He explained that he initially believed Axel was carrying a knife for self-protection, not to harm others. Dion said Axel may have targeted children “to hurt society,” adding that “children are valuable people in society and represent the future, which is what I think he was trying to attack.”
Dion further revealed that in late July 2024, while he was preparing to leave for university, their father warned him to be cautious around Axel because he might kill him. Their father, Alphonse Rudakubana, confirmed that Axel had been showing worrying behavioral changes, including pouring oil on his head and threatening to kill him if he ever tried to remove him from the home.
Alphonse explained that the family moved to the UK shortly after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. He said they did not fully discuss those events with their children due to their young age, hoping to protect them from trauma. He said he was shocked when, one day, Axel and Dion came home talking about the Genocide after learning about it at school. The family later chose to gradually share only what they felt the children could handle.
According to Alphonse, the historical trauma of Rwanda is not what harmed Axel. Instead, he believes his sons were affected by growing up in a foreign country with little connection to the Rwandan community. He said the boys “saw that our family was isolated compared to others, and they felt like foreigners even though they believed this country was their home.”
Axel Rudakubana is now serving his sentence at Belmarsh Prison in London, held in a special unit for inmates with suspected mental health disorders as doctors continue to assess his psychological state.
