Dads Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe honour their daughters, victims of Taylor Swift-themed dance class attack by running London Marathon

Two of the fathers of young girls killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in 2024 have run the London Marathon in their daughter’s honour.

Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe took part in the event on April 27, each donning T-shirts adorned with their little girl’s faces.

Aguiar lost his daughter Alice, nine, in the stabbing attack and Stancombe’s daughter Elsie, seven, was also killed in the tragedy.

Both men completed the 42-kilometre race.

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Aguair wore a T-shirt which included a photo of Alice and details of a fundraising effort for a new playground at Churchtown Primary School, where the girls attended school alongside a third victim, Bebe King, six.

Aguair was overcome with emotion upon crossing the finish line, collapsing on the ground. He was later seen holding his medal and gesturing above, pointing to the sky.

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“Everything is in my mind,” he said after completing the event.

“I don’t think [sic] I was going to finish. I headed to the wall a couple of times and the last six miles were very very hard. And the last 200 metres, that’s the worst.”

He said he talked to Alice during training and the marathon, telling her “she could stay with me and help me go forwards [sic] and cross the line”.

“That’s what I asked,” he added.

He agreed that Alice would be “so proud” of him following the achievement.

Stancombe wore a T-shirt showing a photo of his daughter Elise and details of the charitable fund he has set up in her honour, Elsie’s Story.

“Elsie’s dad” read the words on the front of his shirt too. 

“When me and Elise last year watched the London Marathon, I remember it like it was yesterday,” he said, adding that his daughter suggested he run it.

“I just never thought I’d be running it for these reasons.”

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Jinne Payne, the headteacher of Churchtown Primary School, where Alice and Bebe were students, also entered the event, revealing that the Prince and Princess of Wales had donated to the school’s fundraiser set up to raise money for the new playground as well as a performance stage and library.

Bebe’s parents, Lauren and Ben King, planned to attend the race to cheer on both dads.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were fatally stabbed at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space community centre in Southport England on July 29, 2024.

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The perpetrator, Axel Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 52 years in January, Merseyside Police announced in a press release.

He was 17 at the time of the attack.

Rudakubana also wounded eight other children and two adults during the event which was organised by yoga teacher Leanne Lucas who was also injured.

“There were 26 children at the party, all of them happy and enjoying themselves,” Judge Julian Goose said during Rudakubana’s sentencing hearing.

“He targeted those children for the horrific, extreme violence he was intent upon. It was such extreme violence of the utmost seriousness [that] it was difficult to comprehend.”

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