Family in tears at memorial for ‘amazing, caring, confident' Alice

A BIG-hearted pensioner is looking after the mountain of floral tributes and toys left for the three little girls killed in Southport, it emerged yesterday, as inquests were opened into their senseless deaths.

- Chris Riches

Mike Ainscough, 82, said he began tending to the blooms and other items of remembrance when they began piling up outside his home in the town after the July 29 attack.

It was as close as people could get to the police cordon surrounding The Hart Space, where six-year-old Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were fatally stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

As well as ensuring water for the flowers is topped up wherever possible, Mike keeps the teddies on his drive so they can be seen and appreciated by the public but quickly moved inside when the weather turns.

He said: "When it rains me and my wife take all the teddy bears into our front room so they don't get wet and then once the rain stops we put them out again.

"Little ones have donated their own teddies but then get sad and miss them so I let them come and visit them before they go to bed."

He is far from being the only Southport resident who respectfully honours the memories of the girls.

As towns and cities across the country reeled from the fear and destruction of riots sparked by the killings, family, friends and neighbours of little Alice were celebrating her too-short life at a packed church service.

Poignantly, her mum Alexandra Aguiar and dad Sergio walked into St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church clutching one of her toys and her ballet shoes.

Alice's head teacher Jinnie Payne, from Churchtown Primary, was in tears as she read tributes from her young classmates.