Taylor Swift made a heartwarming gesture to the victims of the Southport attacks, the families have revealed.
The parents of two of the girls murdered at the Swift-themed dance class last summer have spoken out, after killer Axel Rudakubana was jailed for life last month. Tributes were paid to Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe in moving interviews on Good Morning Britain this morning.
In them, it was poignantly revealed how the singer invited families to her record-breaking Eras Tour on its Wembley dates last summer. The megastar had previously responded to the news in a statement online, expressing her shock and horror.
Elsie’s parents Jenni and David also revealed how the singer had met with them, asking to see pictures and hear about the seven-year-old. “Oh god, if Elsie knew that Taylor knew her, that all her dreams had come true,” Jenni said.
Her dad David said: “She [Taylor] kept a couple of pictures as well didn’t she?” Elsie’s mum added: “Yeah we showed her the pictures and she went ‘can I keep these?'”
The parents explained further: “We met her back in Wembley, she asked to meet us personally and she was very lovely. It was quite overwhelming but it was, it felt like we needed to do it. It was all these little glimmers that we had to try and find, we needed to find some light in the dark and it was.”
The parents have also met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, welcoming plans for a public inquiry into the attack. Elsie’s mum added: “It will hold people to account for some of the decisions that they’ve made, and as a result allowed this to happen. Our girls just need to be safe. Our children need to be safer and protected.”
Jenni and David revealed they often feel as if “we’ll never feel true happiness again, ever”. They said: “We feel like it’s out duty as her mum and dad to continue writing Elsie’s story for her. So many times we’ve said, ‘We’ll never feel true happiness again, ever’. We might just feel a little something else when we make another little girl smile, for Elsie.”
Elsie was killed alongside six-year-old Bebe King and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar in the knife attack at Southport’s Hart Space studios on July 29 last year.
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