A teenager who stabbed 12-year-old Ava White at school after a dispute over a Snapchat video has been found guilty of murder.
The 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he accidentally stabbed the school in the neck in self-defense during the Christmas lights in Liverpool.
He told the court he wanted to “scare” her after an altercation in the city center on November 25, 2021.
The teenager admitted that he owned the knife, which according to the court had a 7.5 cm blade, but denied his murder and manslaughter.
The boy discarded the 7.5 cm blade he used to kill 12-year-old Ava White. Credit: Crown Prosecution Service
The court heard that Ava and her friends got involved in an argument with the defendant and three of her friends after the boys recorded Snapchat videos of the group.
Ava’s friends said the boy “smiled” after stabbing her in School Lane and running away.
Ava’s last words to her friends while she was dying on the floor were “don’t leave me,” the court heard.
Defendant told the jury, “I promise, I didn’t want to hit her.”
He said that in the early evening he heard that one of Ava’s group members was threatening to stab his friend if he did not delete a video of Ava.
Ava White, 12, was killed last November in a Christmas light.
The court learned that after the schoolgirl was hit in the neck, the defendant fled, threw the knife and took off his coat, which was later found in a wheeled bin.
CCTV showed him and his friends at a store where the defendant took a selfie and the group bought butter, which he said was for crumpets.
He then went to a friend’s house and when his mother contacted him because the police wanted to talk to him he told him he was playing a computer game.
The court said he had a text message to his mother telling him “he was not going to the cells” after the stabbing.
The jacket a 14-year-old boy was wearing when he stabbed Ava White was found in a wheeled container. Credit: Crown Prosecution Service
After being arrested, shortly after 10:30 p.m., he initially told police he had not been in the city center, but in later interviews he blamed another boy for the stabbing.
A 20-second clip showing the stabbing was played during the trial, leaving family members crying in the public gallery.
More than 20 members of Ava White’s family erupted in applause when the jury returned a guilty verdict on the murder charge.
Defendant, who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), appeared in court via a video link. He put his head in his hands as the verdict was read.
Judge Yip said the accused would be convicted on July 11.
He ordered the preparation of a report prior to the sentencing. The judge detained boy A in safe accommodation until that date. She says: “There is only one sentence that the court can impose. Of course, what I have to do is set the minimum time that it has to serve. I will have to have reports for that.”
Speaking after the verdict, Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson said: “Our thoughts are with Ava White’s family and friends on this extremely difficult day.
“The pain and suffering they have suffered over the last few months is unimaginable.
“We can only hope that the verdict will bring them some consolation.”