SOUTHPORT: Hundreds of mourners gathered on Sunday in Southport 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.

The parents of one of three girls, who were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed event, called for an end to the nationwide rioting that followed their deaths at an emotional funeral for their young daughter.

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.

900 arrested, 466 charged over disorder targeting migrants and Muslims

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. “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 headteacher of the primary school the nine-year-old attended, was among those to speak. “Alice, you will forever be in our hearts,” she told the congregation.

The July 29 mass stabbing killed two other girls — Bebe King, 6 and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7 — 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 their elder daughter, Genie, witnessed the attack and managed to escape.

At Aguiar’s 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, mainly targeted at migrants and Muslims, with dozens already sentenced and jailed as cases are fast-tracked through the courts.

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.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024