Heroic yoga teacher stabbed in Southport attacks calls for ban on pointed kitchen knives

21 May 2025, 07:54

A yoga teacher who was repeatedly stabbed in the Southport attacks has launched a campaign calling for a ban on pointed kitchen knives, saying she felt inspired after meeting William and Kate.

Leanne Lucas fought off Southport killer Axel Rudakubana and sustained five stab wounds to her spine, head, ribs, lung and shoulder blade.

Despite this, the yoga instructor and her friend, dance teacher Heidi Liddle, were able to get several children out of the room.

She has now launched a new campaign calling for a ban on pointed kitchen knives that can be used as weapons, as she described how the attack has affected her.

Ms Lucas said she felt “afraid” in her own kitchen, and has not cooked or used knives “since the summer” because of the fear she has been left with after the attack.

“The hardest part for me was obviously the grief and everything that happened. I didn’t know anything about knife crime — it wasn’t part of my world,” she told The Times.

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“I never thought it would end up on our doorstep.”

Axel Rudakubana, 18, murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed class in the Merseyside town in July last year, when he was 17.

Leanne Lucas was leading this dance class when the attacker stormed into the building, and attacked her before she was able to escape with a number of children.

Rudakubana - who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January - admitted to murder and attempting to murder eight other children and class instructor Leanne Lucas, as well as businessman John Hayes.

Ms Lucas has now revealed she decided to launch her campaign against knife crime after meeting the Prince and Princess of Wales.

“They came to pay their respects to the families and the survivors, because what happened to us touched the hearts of everyone in the country,” she said.

“I felt real support from them.”

The Princess of Wales made a surprise visit to Southport in October last year with the Prince of Wales to meet the families of victims and survivors of the knife attack.

Ms Lucas also described how she has become ‘hypervigilant’ because of her experience, and that she’s constantly on the lookout for other potential attacks.

“Every time I go somewhere, I think how I can help people if something bad happens. Where’s the fire escape? Have I got my phone in my hands so I can call the police? I’m constantly thinking, ‘At any moment your life can change’,” she said.

“I didn’t realise how afraid I felt in my own kitchen; I haven’t cooked since the summer. I think part of that reason is subconsciously I’ve got a fear.”

The Let’s Be Blunt campaign will launch this Wednesday, coinciding with Knife Crime Awareness Week, calling on Britons to leave behind pointy knives and use rounded ones instead.

“Pointed knives, readily available in most kitchens, pose a very real risk of being tragically used as weapons on our streets,” she told the newspaper.

She added: “I may be scared walking down the road, but I’m not scared of saying exactly what I think needs to happen next.

“I’m much stronger than I thought I was; perhaps I’m more resilient. Those closest around me can see me coming back — they see the fight I have in me.”

Last year she told LBC the attack made her ‘lose faith in the world’.

She shared her story with LBC at a candle-lit vigil in memory of the women and girls who have lost their lives to male violence in Merseyside. She had never previously spoken about the attack.

“It has just made us feel very unsafe," she admitted.

“My purpose was creating wellbeing events for children and families, and for that to happen where I was, and for the words I spoke and the children spoke, for that to be trampled over has really dampened all of our spirits.

“It left us feeling unsafe, feeling like we just lost faith in the world.”

Rudakubana's 52-year jail term is one of the highest on record, and is thought to be the longest punishment handed to a killer of his age.