Hundreds of mourners gathered yesterday in Southport, northwest England, for the funeral of a nine-year-old girl killed in last month’s knife attack, which sparked more than a week of nationwide disorder.
Family, friends, community leaders and emergency responders all joined Alice da Silva Aguiar’s parents for an emotional ceremony at a Catholic church in the seaside town, nearly two weeks after the mass stabbing that shocked the country.
Attendees had been asked to wear white, a tradition for some in Portugal, where Alice’s parents hail from.
Locals lining the main road clapped as the funeral cortege – bearing a small white coffin, resting on a carriage pulled by two white horses with colourful feathers – passed by.
“Of course we’re here – it’s the Southport spirit,” said one man who turned out for the event. “We’re here to pay our respects.”
Pink ribbons and balloons had been tied to lampposts and garden walls near the church.
Several hundred people packed inside the venue for the service – featuring short addresses, readings, prayers and hymns – which was relayed on loudspeakers to those who had gathered outside.
Jinnie Payne, the head teacher of the primary school that the nine-year-old attended, was among those to speak movingly.
“Alice, you will forever be in our hearts,” she told the congregation.
The July 29 mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class killed two other girls – Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – and injured 10 others, including eight children.
Those wounded have all since been released from hospital.
Bebe’s parents, Lauren and Ben King, described on Saturday how their “world was shattered by the loss of our precious daughter”.
“She was taken from us in an unimaginable act of violence that has left our hearts broken beyond repair,” they said in a statement released through police, adding she was “full of joy, light, and love”.
The couple also revealed that their elder daughter, Genie, witnessed the attack and managed to escape.
The stabbings sparked a riot in Southport the following evening, on July 30, and violence in more than a dozen English towns and cities as well as Northern Ireland over the ensuing week.
Officials have blamed the violence on far-right agitators and opportunist “thugs” accused of using the tragedy to further their anti-immigration, anti-Muslim agenda.
Misinformation spread online in the aftermath of the stabbing spree claimed that the perpetrator was a Muslim immigrant.
British-born Axel Rudakubana has been charged with murder and attempted murder over the attack.
His parents hail from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian.
A motive for the attack has not been disclosed, but police have said it is not being treated as terrorism-related.
Alice’s parents have called for an end to the nationwide rioting.
At the funeral, the area’s police chief told the congregation that her grieving Portuguese parents, Sergio and Alexandra, had asked her to deliver a public appeal for calm.
“You have shown great courage in asking me to be here today...to give a message from you, Alice’s family, to say that you do not want there to be any more violence on the streets of the United Kingdom in the name of your daughter,” Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.
“I am ashamed, and I’m so sorry that you had to even consider this in the planning of the funeral of your beautiful daughter Alice.
“And I hope that anyone who has taken part in the violent disorder on our streets over the past 13 days, is hanging their heads in shame at the pain that they have caused you, a grieving family.”
More than 900 people have been arrested and 466 charged with offences over the disorder, with dozens already sentenced and jailed as cases are fast-tracked through the courts.
Police and politicians believe the speedy, tough response from the authorities combined with thousands attending counter-protests since Wednesday have deterred people from taking part in further protests, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced as “far-right thuggery”.
Starmer has cancelled holiday plans to deal with the response, and many more arrests and charges are expected over the coming months, prosecutors said.
Justice minister Shabana Mahmood has said that the impact on the already stretched judicial system would be felt for years to come.