A man who confronted Axel Rudakubana moments before the Southport attack still wonders if he could have stopped the killer before the teen unleashed “unspeakable” horror.

       The Southport attacker- who used a 20cm Cerbera kitchen knife to attack 11 children and two adults- initially took a wrong turn and went down the driveway of Colin Parry’s car repair workshop by mistake on that awful day.

       Reliving the horrific events for the first time since 18-year-old Rudakubana pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday Mr Parry revealed all he could see was the killer’s eyes when the knifeman, wearing a bright green hoodie and Covid face mask, arrived on Hart Street in a taxi just before 11:45am.

       When he arrived at the scene he left the taxi without paying, prompting the driver to follow him demanding payment, which he ignored.

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       Mr Parry, 63, saw what was going on, and told Rudakubana to pay the taxi driver, but he replied: "What are you going to do about it?"

       “He’s agitated, shuffling around because the lad realises he’s in the wrong place, yeah, and walks out,” he told The Independent. “Doesn’t run out. He just walked out, but he pushed past the taxi.”

       His brief encounter with the then 17-year-old killer is believed to be one of the last interactions the violence-obsessed teenager.

       He said: “He could have stabbed me, knowing what’s happened now... but he didn’t because he knew what he was here for.

       “He would have been stopped then because we all would have jumped on him. But if I had known, he wouldn’t have been going next door. But we couldn’t see anything on him.”

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       Moments later Rudakubana burst inside the Taylor Swift dance workshop and shortly afterwards the screaming started prompting Mr Parry to race to the Hart Space and call 999.

       He recalled: "I said we need everybody, as many ambulances as we can get. We need all the paramedics. I said there are girls dying everywhere, bleeding to death. Plus the guy was still in the building and I didn’t know how many girls were in that building. He could have been killing them all.”

       Colin said he has struggled with the possibility he could have done something, adding: "We all have. It's all ifs and buts and it goes without saying had we seen anything or had we known, he wouldn't have been doing what he did next door."

       Since that fateful day Colin has battled nightmares and flashbacks and has called for Rudakubana to never see the light of day again.

       Mr Parry said: “I don’t believe that he should ever be let out whatsoever because he will do this again. That’s my opinion. You can’t change him.

       “If he gets out in 20 years, he will be 38. He’s young enough. He would just go crazy again I’m sure."

       Serial killer Rudakubana had a knife crime awareness course three years before his Southport killing spree.

       Lancashire County Council has confirmed Rudakubana first became known to children's social care in 2019, five years before murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, on 29th July 2024.

       Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday, Mr Justice Goose said in court. He told the teenager that it would be inevitable that a life sentence equivalent would be imposed upon him.