Southport inquiry: Parents of child injured in attack give evidence

Inside the poignant and painful inquiry

The Southport inquiry is taking place in the council chamber of the Liverpool Town Hall, an old 18th-century building in the heart of the city. 

The chamber's walls are wood-panelled, while chandeliers hang from the ceiling. 

There are journalists and lawyers sitting on the wooden benches, listening intently. 

Today, as it will be for the rest of the inquiry, their attention has been fixed firmly on the centre of the room. 

That is where the chair Sir Adrian Fulford sits, just yards from a witness box. 

As those impacted by the attack talk about the way it changed their lives forever, he looks on and listens, at times taking moments to look away, pausing for thought. 

From the local businessman John Hayes to the parents of children who were there, each statement today carried poignant, painful reminders of the horrors of that day in July, which will be felt long after this inquiry ends.

'Mummy is scared too - mummy sobs in bed at night'

The statement continues, explaining what the mother hides from her traumatised child.

"What she doesn't know and I won't allow myself to show her is that Mummy is scared too. Mummy sobs in bed at night," she adds.

"There is no end to this, no release. There is no healing that will bring things back to how they were. 

"No outcome will take away the pain. 

"It won't make my sweet little girl feel safe, and it won't bring back her beautiful best friend."

'She will forever carry consequences of that day'

The mother's statement adds her daughter carries her pain "locked inside", adding that she "doesn't even tell her own mum her feelings because she has never felt safe to speak about the incident".

"But I see it in her eyes and in the way she holds herself, in the quiet moments when she thinks no one is watching," she adds.

"She lives each day trying to build some sense of safety in a world that betrayed her. 

"She will forever carry the consequences of that day, of his actions, forever. 

"This is her reality. This is her life sentence."

'What that man did changed my daughter forever - it removed her innocence'

Child U's mother's statement continues, saying that despite the aftermath of the Southport attack being "unbearable," she and her family were forced to endure it.

"This is our new reality," she said.

She went on: "Because of what that man did, my daughter is changed forever."

The young girl, her mum's statement said, was unable to do everyday activities that young people usually do.

"She cannot be left alone because to her the world is unsafe. Other children do these things with joy and excitement. My daughter only feels anxiety and fear," the inquiry was told.

'Deep ongoing trauma'

"What she experienced has rocked her entire world," the mum's statement said. 

"It has removed her innocence and left her second-guessing everything and everyone," the statement added.

The statement gave an example of this:

"When we attended a children's Halloween disco, this being something she would have loved before, she saw a little boy in a fancy dress costume with a blood stained toy knife. 

"She became so distressed that she clung to me until I physically carried her out to the car and we left."

A second example was given, too:

"She had to leave a Christmas pantomime because when the 'bad man' came in with a knife to kill Snow White: she couldn't bear to watch the rest for fear of what she might have to see… again."

The inquiry was told this was "more than just nerves," but a "deep ongoing trauma."

The statement said she had an "extreme and very specific fear of knives, real or fake," and she couldn't bear the sight of blood.

'Unimaginable feelings of hurt and anxiety'

However, despite this, the mum, in her statement, said that when asked how her daughter is doing, she usually responds saying: "She's doing okay thanks."

"Because how do you explain to acquaintances that we are both experiencing unimaginable feelings of hurt, guilt and anxiety. 

"The grief of what she witnessed and of losing her best friend is something that haunts her. 

"It is always there both for her and me," she said. 

It was added: "She carries the pain of survival. The confusion of being here when her friend is not. 

"There is guilt, there is sadness, there is a deep, heavy grief that she cannot name but clearly feels. 

"How do you explain to people when they ask that she still has nightmares, that some nights she wets the bed, that she asks for her bedroom light to stay on, and the door open. 

"That she must be constantly reassured that she is okay, that she is safe. 

"How do I tell people that at night she still begs Mummy to sleep with her?"

'We're not lucky - we're living with a lifetime of pain - it's survival'

We're now back under way at Liverpool Town Hall, resuming with a statement read by the legal representative of the mother of a child known for the inquiry as child U.

She says: "Because she survived, we are made to feel that we are lucky. That is the word people say. 

"And in a way we are. But I was lucky before this happened. 

"I had a daughter who was beautiful in every way. She was bright-eyed and quick to laugh, with a spirit that filled every room she walked into."

She says that to be lucky means to win a raffle or "finding money in your coat pocket".

"Surviving something that has shattered you is not luck – it's survival. 

"It's being forced to live with a lifetime of pain, fear and grief."

She adds: "Calling this lucky ignores the cost of carrying it. 

"It dismisses a lifetime of scars that you cannot see, and you cannot even begin to imagine. 

"Lucky would be having the little girl I had before."

Mother says inquiry must 'demand real answers' and 'force lasting change'

Child M's mother next tells the inquiry about the aftermath of the attack for her daughter and called for real change.

She told Liverpool Town Hall:

"I want this inquiry to tell us how we ever got to this point, why was this allowed to happen. Why was no action taken?

"What change is coming, not in theory but in practice? 

"How many more lives will be destroyed before the system takes responsibility? 

"This inquiry is the chance, maybe the only chance, to demand real answers, to expose every failing and to force meaningful and lasting change. 

"You must take this chance, you must be the change"

In the aftermath of the attack, the mum said her daughter developed a fear of noise and stairs. She also struggled to sleep.

'Those trainers saved her when she had to run for her life'

The mum went on to describe her husband's reaction to the attack.

She said: "We do not deal with things in the same way. But I know it hurts him. 

"From little snippets, such as when I said we needed to get new trainers for our daughter as her's were worn out, his response to me was: 'Those trainers saved her. They have looked after her.' 

"So we will now forever keep what to others look like old, battered trainers, because they aren't just old, battered trainers.

"They were on her feet when she had to run for her life."

The mum also paid tribute to the parents of the three girls who were killed in the attack, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Da Silva Aguiar.

'I truly believed my daughter was dead'

The inquiry is now back under way. We're resuming with the mother of a child known for the inquiry as child M.

She starts by saying she chose to hang her washing out before going to pick up her child from the class, delaying her journey slightly.

She says: "It was such a small, ordinary act, but one that I have regretted every day since. 

"Had I instead headed over earlier, could I have done something? Could I have helped? 

"Could I have stopped the hell that person was inflicting?"

After arriving at the scene, she says that she "couldn't process what was happening... it didn't feel real".

"There were children lying on the floor. There was blood along the white walls. 

"People were shouting, but none of it was making sense."

Scene 'haunts' mum in 'frequent flashbacks'

Child M's mother continues, saying she realised that her daughter might not be safe from harm if she was still inside The Hart Space building.

"I will not describe what I saw when I went up the stairs or into the studio, other than seeing the coward lying face down on the floor being arrested," she says. 

"But that scene is burnt into my memory and is a continual companion. It haunts me, appearing both in my nightmares and during the frequent flashbacks I continue to experience daily."

She says that she "truly believed my daughter was dead" when she could not locate her.

"I called my husband and told him that if she was gone, I couldn't carry on. I would have to go with her. I couldn't let her go alone."

She adds: "I ran. Incredibly, I found her there. 

"Physically, she was unharmed, but the trauma, the damage was already done. 

"From that moment on, everything became a blur."

-SKY NEWS