Southport stabbing latest: Alice da Silva Aguiar’s family honours ‘angel’ at funeral as final photo released

Hundreds of mourners have lined the streets of Southport for the first of three funerals for the young girls fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift dance class nearly two weeks ago.

Nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar’s parents Sergio and Alexandra were joined by up to 300 mourners at St Patrick ’s Catholic Church in Merseyside on Sunday, including the paramedics, police officers and firemen who tried to save her life.

Described as “amazing, caring and confident”, Alice was killed alongside Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at the Hart Space studio on 29 July, near the start of their summer holidays.

On Sunday afternoon, Alice’s grieving family released a picture of the nine-year-old eagerly waiting to get into the class, smiling with a life-size cardboard cut-out of Taylor Swift in the doorway on Hart Street.

The youngster – who is pictured wearing leggings, trainers and a T-shirt with the slogan Vacay Vibes – was dedicated to dance, her parents said in a tribute given at her funeral service.

Alice’s father Sergio and mother Alexandra described the nine-year-old as their “perfect dream child” and “beloved angel”.