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A florist in Southport is bringing her community together, exactly one year on from the tragedy which shook the nation.
On July 29 last year, Axel Rudakubana, armed with a knife, made his way to a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at the Hart Studio – before murdering three children in cold blood.
Southport could have been torn apart by the killings – and the unrest which followed – but instead, its community has grown closer.
Elizabeth Eaton runs local flower shop June the Florist alongside her husband Peter, which has stood in the seaside town for a century.
Now, she has hailed her “close-knit” community to GB News on the anniversary of the tragedy.
Thousands gathered at the vigil in Southport after the attacks
“We have been open 100 years and from what I see, the community is very good,” Eaton told Britain’s News Channel.
“I’m in my sixties and it was a lot closer in the old days but I do believe it is close knit.
“I do think it has brought the community a lot closer together but unfortunately you don’t want a tragedy to be a catalyst.”
In the days that followed the killings, the florist became a place people didn’t just come to buy flowers, but to talk to one another.
Elizabeth Eaton runs local flower shop June the Florist alongside her husband Peter
Eaton, 61, said: “I wasn’t here, but my staff were in the shop at the time it unfolded – people were in shock. At first nobody really knew the whole story.
“People were just looking to have some sort of comfort from somewhere and they did come in the shop a lot because it’s very close to the gardens.
“Not necessarily to buy flowers – they just wanted to come in and talk to somebody.”
She added that the community was brought further together by the town becoming “labelled as a place that has riots and stabbings”.
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| Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were all killed in the attack
In total, 246 protests, counter-protests and incidents of disorder took place, including 88 seen as “significant”.
While Southport – like many other places in the country – saw unrest in the days that followed the murders, Eaton has lauded it as “really a seaside town for people to come for a day out”.
“It is beautiful around the Marine Lakes, the King’s Gardens, the beach,” she told GB News.
“We are soon going to have a pier back, that is going to have work done on it and be reopened very quickly – there’s lots of beautiful places to be in Southport.”
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June the Florist opened in 1925
Now, June the Florist is donating 500 roses to mark the one-year anniversary of the murders.
People can collect them from the shop to take home or lie them in remembrance of the victims.
Nine-year-old Alice de Silva Aguiar, six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe were murdered at the hands of the then-17-year-old.
The teen killer also attempted to murder eight other children, dance class instructor Leanne Lucas and local businessman John Hayes.
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Flowers laid in Southport last summer following the murders
Rudakubana also admitted to the production of a biological toxin, ricin, on or before July 29 and “possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism”.
He is now behind bars after being sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 52 years in January.
His minimum custodial sentence for the Southport attack ranks among the longest on record, and is believed to be the harshest penalty ever imposed on someone his age.