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'We live it every day': Southport parents tell of agony of their loss
The Guardian
|September 16, 2025
The parents of the three girls killed in the Southport attack have told the inquiry into their deaths of the unbridled joy their daughters brought them and the trauma of their loss.
"This should never have happened in a safe and just society," said Jenni Stancombe. "This cannot happen, no other parent should feel this pain."
An inquiry into the attacks purposefully heard only three pieces of testimony before being adjourned for the day yesterday - impact statements from the parents of Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.
Jenni Stancombe, reading her statement alongside her husband, David, described Elsie as "our joy, our pride, our everything" as she spoke about their perfect family life. "We used to say we had won the lottery, the luckiest parents in the world."
Elsie had been a "dreamer" who "always, always had big ideas and the most beautiful imagination," her mother said. "Our aspiring little fashionista, making creations from fabric and other things she found around the house."
This story is from the September 16, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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