Knife boy ‘laughed and ran after killing Ava, 12’
A 14-YEAR-OLD boy laughed and ran away after stabbing a 12-year-old girl to death, a court heard yesterday.
Ava White got into a fierce argument with the boy after he reportedly filmed her and friends without permission.
He then posted the footage on social media platform Snapchat.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Ava and friends had been “messing around” in the city’s shopping area last November 25 when their antics were filmed by the boy, who she vaguely knew.
But a jury was told that when Ava demanded the boy remove and delete the footage he lunged at her with a 3in blade flick knife. He left her with a “catastrophic” and fatal neck wound, before smirking and running away.
The boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons – denies the murder of Ava, from Everton, Merseyside, and claims he was acting in self-defence.
Relatives of the schoolgirl in the public gallery sobbed as the jury were shown CCTV footage of her last moments during the confrontation in the Liverpool One shopping zone.
Prosecutor Charlotte Newell QC said: “Ava spent the evening in and around the main shopping centre with a group of friends and family aged between 11 and 15 years old.
“They simply wanted to hang out together, singing and dancing and generally messing around. They were moved on by a security guard and went to Williamson Square where a large Christmas tree had been illuminated.
“They continued to throw plants at each other, give each other piggy backs…run around.”
Miss Newell said at one point Ava was lying on the floor, having consumed a small amount of alcohol. The defendant, with three friends, came across Ava’s group and he got out his phone and began filming.
Miss Newell said: “The footage was distributed by the defendant via the social media platform Snapchat.
“The inevitable scope for such widespread sharing caused Ava and her friends to approach the defendant and his laughing friends and ask they stop filming and delete the footage.
“Ava was not at all happy and made that plain. The group did not appear to take her seriously at first.
“Ava ran to get her friends who joined her in confronting the defendant and his group, insisting that they delete footage and pointing out that they could not film little kids.
“This became heated and Ava approached the defendant in that angry mood but did not inflict any violence upon him greater than a push. His response was to pull out his knife and stab Ava in the neck.”
The jury were played the CCTV of the confrontation and Miss Newell said: “There seems to be some pushing or shoving…his reaction was not to turn and run, or to slap – but to reach for the knife.
“And rather than wave it around or warn her he had a knife, he thrust the knife into the neck of this unarmed child with the force of a firm punch.
“He now says he was acting in selfdefence. However, his reaction at the time was to smirk and run away, leaving Ava to die.”
Miss Newell said that the teenage defendant “began a conscious coverup of his actions” by discarding the knife, his phone and his coat.
He initially denied he had been in the city centre, then blamed another person for the killing.Trial continues.
‘He thrust the knife into the neck of this unarmed child’