Revealed: How Southport stabbing suspect Axel Rudakubana starred as Doctor Who for BBC Children in Need fundraising advert when he was 11 [Video]

12:43 EDT 02 Aug 2024, updated 14:12 EDT 02 Aug 2024

The teenager accused of murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event once starred as Doctor Who in a BBC Children in Need advert, MailOnline can reveal.

Axel Rudakubana, then aged 11, appeared in the promotional video emerging from the Tardis wearing a brown trench coat and tie.

The clip featuring Rudakubana, filmed in Blackpool in 2018, also stars four other child actors dressed as other incarnations of the Doctor – and tells fundraisers for the annual charity appeal: ‘It’s time to do your thing’.

The BBC and the child talent agency who had employed Rudakubana both deleted the video yesterday.

A source at the corporation said: ‘Children in Need has no relationship to Axel Rudakubana.

‘The individual was contracted by the BBC for the campaign video through a casting agency in 2018 and has never had an affiliation with any of our funded projects.’