The heroic director who tackled the Southport attacker to protect young children said he is lucky to be alive as the blade narrowly missed his femoral artery.
Speaking from his hospital bed, John Hayes said he feels ‘lucky’ that he will recover while ‘others are not so fortunate’.
The 63-year-old praised the emergency services as the ‘real heroes’ of the tragic attack which killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.
But the local man narrowly escaped death, as if the femoral artery is cut, a person could bleed out and die within two and five minutes.
Mr Hayes is the director of a company based in the same building as the Hart Space, which was being used for the Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class where the attack happened on Monday.
He heard the harrowing screams of children at the dance studio and ran to protect them, bravely trying to disarm the attacker but was stabbed in the leg.
He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and underwent surgery, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Speaking from his hospital bed, John Hayes said he feels ‘lucky’ that he will recover
Rudakubana (pictured as a child) is charged with murdering three little girls and harming 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport with a ‘curved kitchen knife’
Floral tributes are left for those who were attacked at the Taylor Swift-themed workshop
Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, was fatally wounded in the attack which shocked the nation
Bebe King, aged six, was also killed in the attack on Monday morning
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, aged nine, was one of three children killed in Southport
His wife Helen, 57, previously said he regrets not being able to do more to stop the ‘ferocious attack’ that left two children dead.
Yesterday, 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana was able to be named for the first time after a reporting restriction was lifted.
He was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff in 2006 before moving to the village of Banks in Lancashire in 2013.
Speaking to The Guardian, Mr Hayes said he puts his ‘faith and trust in the judiciary in the hope this man never gets the opportunity to do something similar again’.
He added selflessly that he doesn’t consider himself to be a hero and expressed his ‘heartfelt sympathy’ for those caught up in the ‘tragedy’.
His wife told The Telegraph that her husband put himself between the knife-wielding attacker and the children, adding: ‘Our office is in the same building as the dance studio, he heard screams and went outside, saw the attacker, saw that he had hurt a child and tried to take the knife off him and got stabbed in the leg.
Mourners leave floral tributes near the scene in Hart Street, where the three children died
Floral tributes, balloons and soft toys covered the street near the police cordon in Southport
Friendship bracelets reading ‘Beautiful Swifties’ are seen next to electric tea lights amid floral tributes for the victims of a deadly knife attack at the Atkinson in Southport
Leanne Lucas, who organised the Taylor Swift-themed holiday club, has had life-saving surgery and is now awake, her family said on Wednesday
‘The dance studio is tucked away down a little alley, you wouldn’t know that there was a children’s dance studio there just by walking past – you would have to have known it was there.
‘I’ve been with him all afternoon at the hospital. He’s very upset that he wasn’t able to be more help. Physically he will be okay, mentally I don’t know.’
Rudakubana appeared in court yesterday accused of carrying out the attack that killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.
Rudakubana is also accused of the attempted murders of eight more children, along with dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and Mr Hayes.
The teenager, who refused to speak at his court appearance in Liverpool, had been diagnosed with autism and was ‘unwilling to leave the house’ and talk to his family ‘for a period of time’, the court heard.
Neighbours claimed they could often hear the teen, from Cardiff, singing inside his family home in the village of Banks, according to the Mirror.
One local told the Liverpool Echo how they would often ‘hear singing’ from the ‘quiet choirboy’ at the terraced home where he lived with his parents and 20-year-old brother. ‘It’s a massive, massive shock,’ the neighbour said.
A man is held back by police as a prison van escorted by police leaves Liverpool Crown Court
Court artist drawing of Rudakubana covering his face as he appeared in the dock
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC described his medical condition, saying: ‘He has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. We understand he has been unwilling to leave the house and communicate with his family for a period of time.’
Judge Andrew Menary condemned the ‘idiotic rioting’ which has broken out since the attack and said he named Rudakubana to fill the information vacuum exploited by ‘others who are up to mischief’.
He said: ‘The idiotic rioting going on at the moment is, in part, fed by the nonsense online that feeds on the vacuum.’
Judge Menary explained what he described as an ‘exceptional’ decision against imposing reporting restrictions sought by both prosecution and defence, which would have granted the defendant anonymity until he turns 18 next Wednesday.
He said he had to balance a risk to the defendant’s family and initial risk to him while settling into custody with the public interest in accurately reporting his identity.
The Southport mass stabbings have led to riots on the streets. Pictured: Southport on Tuesday
A street near a mosque goes up in flames as violent thugs took to the streets on Tuesday night
Police officers with people attending the ‘Enough is Enough’ protest in Westminster on Wednesday as chaos erupted throughout the country
A homemade poster saying ‘Leave our town’ on a bridge near the mosque on Sussex Road in Southport that was targeted during Tuesday night riots
Granting the Daily Mail’s request not to impose restrictions, he said: ‘By continuing to prevent full reporting at this stage has the disadvantage of allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread misinformation in a vacuum and runs the risk that when the information becomes publicly available in six days’ time, that will provide an additional excuse for a fresh round of public disorder.
‘Allowing full reporting will undoubtedly remove some of the misreporting as to the identity of the defendant.’
The judge added: ‘The defendant Axel Rudakubana appears before me having been sent to this court earlier this morning by the Youth Court in respect of multiple charges of murder and attempted murder.
‘The alleged offending in his case is shocking and could hardly be more serious, involving as it does the killing and serious wounding of multiple victims, most of whom were young children, in an incident in Southport on Monday 29 July 2024.’
