I would give anything to swap places with my fearless little Elsie, say parents of Southport victim in 1st TV interview

THE mum of Southport victim Elsie Dot Stancombe said she would give anything to have swapped places with her tragic daughter.

Jenni and David Stancombe, in their first interview, told of their heartbreak and need for accountability after a Government inquiry was launched.

On July 29 last year teenage killer Axel Rudakubana burst into a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space armed with a knife.

He murdered Elsie, seven, as well as Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, and injured several others.

Rudakubana, 19, was jailed for life to serve a minimum of 52 years in prison last month.

Jenni, 35, speaking to Good Morning Britain today, said: "We will never feel true happiness again ever."

Holding back tears, she added: "If we had been there it wouldn't have happened.

"I might not be here but I'd have never let that happen. 100 percent. I'd swap with Elsie any day."

She went on to say: "We represent Elsie and our actions and how we hold ourselves is a representation of her.

"She was so much more than that school picture... we could never show you how special she was, only she could do that."

Asked what his overriding emotions are, David, 36, said: "Guilt, anger... it's just something I've got to deal with."

Jenni continued: "We just dropped her off to dance and make bracelets. That's all we did.

"It was something nice for her to do for a couple of hours in the first week of school holidays...

"Lots have said we should never of sent her but she wanted to go so much and I think [it's something] we've spoke about a lot. She was in the right place and where she wanted to be."

David said his daughter and all the children "had every right to be there, and every right to feel safe".

Jenni said "nothing will bring her back" and David said: "You just torment yourself."

Asked about what they want to come out of the inquiry into the failings that led to Rudakubana slipping through the cracks despite being flagged up as a danger, Jenni said: "An element of accountability."

She continued: "So someone has made a decision that has resulted in an element of failure, then there needs to be accountability for that.

"And I believe that the announcement of the inquiry will do that and it will hold people to account for some of the decisions that they've made."

It comes after a damning Government report confirmed earlier this month that counter-extremism police three times closed investigations on twisted Rudakubana prior to the Southport murders.

A separate review of the entire scheme is being conducted to see how it can stop more atrocities.

As well as murdering Elsie, Bebe and Alice, Rudakubana also attempted to murder eight other children, as well as class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

Among other atrocities, the report said he was fascinated by the Ariana Grande concert bombing in 2016 which killed 22 people, including children.

He is also said to have asked during a 2019 art lesson why he was able to draw images of guns but not search them on the internet.

He then asked "can we have a picture of a severed head then".

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said last week that the killer was reported to Prevent three times but not referred for further monitoring.

David told GMB today: "At the time, I didn't know what Prevent was, but since now I know he's had encounters with them.

"It goes without saying, he's obviously come into contact with these services... it doesn't bring Elsie back, does it."

Jenni added: "We hope that change does come off the back of it.

"I would hate for anyone to go through this."

And David said: "No one else should ever go through something like this. If it was that obvious he'd been flagged up some many times.

"They need to find an answer to it, to iron out the flaws that are already in these services we look into all these people that get flagged up."

Jenni said the family had met singer Swift and her family weeks after the attack at her Wembley show and shown her pictures of Elsie, which she asked to keep.

She said: "If Elsie knew that Taylor knew her, it would be like all her dreams had come true."

The couple, who said they "won't let evil win this", have set up the charity Elsie's Story in their daughter's memory.

Jenni said: "So many times where we have said we'll never feel true happiness again, ever.

"We might just feel a little bit of something when we make another child smile, for Elsie."

'SHE IS GOING TO MOVE MOUNTAINS'

Bebe's mother, who was not identified for legal reasons, told the programme she hoped her daughter would still have an impression on the world.

She said: "She can help just the future, protecting children, and I believe she is going to move mountains regardless."

She told the programme: "Our girls just need to be safe, our children need to be safer and protected."

She added: "As parents, it is just really important for us to be able to remove Bebe from the past couple of weeks.

"She was a human being. She was a beautiful, funny, crazy, gorgeous girl and her legacy, it can't be defined by what's happened.

"I feel like a lioness and I have got to protect my child and I have got to make sure that people know that she isn't defined by this."

She was in tears as she spoke of the family's final moments with Bebe in Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

"She was in her pyjamas, we read to her and the family visited her," she said.

"The final day we lay next to her and we did our final goodbye."

Bebe's father said the decision to televise the judge's sentencing remarks had "really hurt".

The family's solicitor Sara Stanger said they wanted online safety to be "paramount" in the inquiry.

She said: "They were all really shocked to hear that the videos that the offender accessed were all available on the open internet."