Southport dance teacher who shielded child in toilet during attack ‘tortured by guilt’

Flowers, toys and tributes laid near the scene of the attack on 29 July 2024. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

A dance teacher who led the Taylor Swift-themed children’s workshop which was attacked in Southport has described feeling “tortured” by a “crushing” guilt over the atrocity.

Heidi Liddle, who shielded one little girl inside a bathroom during the attack, said the trauma of that day had “fractured every part of my brain and my life”.