The costs firm owner who stepped in front of the knife-wielding Southport attacker has expressed his gratitude after being inundated with messages from the legal profession.
John Hayes was able to return home at the end of last week after surgery for serious leg injuries suffered during the course of the incident at a summer dance school.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, died in the attack.
Hayes, managing director of Calculus Legal Costs, was working in the same building and responded to screams by opening the door directly onto the attacker whom he then confronted.
Speaking to the Gazette from his home, Hayes stressed he did not want to be regarded as a hero but said he had been touched by the response of people working in the legal profession, both law firm clients and others he has never met.
‘Everyone from paralegals to managing partners have been in touch to express thanks and that has been really quite uplifting. I want to say thank you for the enormous amount of support within and outside our client base. It is amazing how the legal community has voiced their support and that has been heart-warming. Aside from friends and family I have had emails and messages from people I don’t know from all over the world. The legal profession – clients and other law firms – have been overwhelming in sending messages of well wishes.’
Hayes is able to walk with crutches but cannot bend his left leg and is likely to be immobile at home for a number of weeks. He described feeling lucky that stab wounds he suffered missed arteries and hopes to make a full physical recovery.
His life has changed overnight since the incident, with the media camped outside his house for the whole of last week and calls for his intervention to be rewarded.
Hayes said he ‘cringed’ when he saw himself on television and added: ‘I am really keen that the narrative doesn’t become about me…. I just wanted to avoid any further injury to those children.’
The 63-year-old is also concerned to make sure his staff are reassured and given any support they might need, particularly the five colleagues were in the office at the time of the attack.
The office remains closed as it is a crime scene, with staff unable even to collect their cars from the car park. Hayes said one issue had been that the firm’s work involved meeting court deadlines, and one employee was able to access the building with police supervision this week to pick up time-sensitive files.
‘The staff came to my house at the end of last week and I wanted to put my arm around them and thank them. One of them had applied a tourniquet on my leg to stop the bleeding. Seeing them was an opportunity for me to thank them and assess how they are coping. By and large they are going to be ok.’
- Axel Rudakubana, now 18, has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.
