Playground appeal for Southport attack victims hits £250k

An appeal for a commemorative playground at the primary school attended by two of the Southport attack victims has reached its £250,000 target.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, were killed along with seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July.

Sergio Aguiar is raising money to build a new playground, including a performance stage and library, at Churchtown Primary School, where his daughter Alice was a pupil.

It will also be dedicated to Bebe, who had previously attended the school.

Mr Aguiar told BBC Breakfast before the appeal reached its target: “In the next few years, thousands of children will enjoy that playground.”

He added: “We always said that the school felt like a second home to Alice.

“She would be very proud of us [creating] this playground.

“I can imagine how happy she would be to see it. I wish she could have enjoyed it.”

Thanking people for their donations, he said: “People are so kind. They come up to me and say ‘well done, the playground will be amazing’.”

Mr Aguiar appeared on the programme on Saturday with the fundraising target being met soon afterwards.

He will run next month’s London Marathon alongside Alice’s headteacher Jinnie Payne.

Ms Payne said the building of the playground will be completed by September.

Alan Bowen, who was Alice’s favourite teacher at Churchtown Primary, said he could imagine her on the playground’s stage with her “singing, twirling her hair and leading everybody else”.

Axel Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January for the murders of the three girls and attempted murders of eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.