Girl, 12, ‘stabbed to death in row over online f ilm’
A BOY of 14 laughed after stabbing a 12-year-old girl to death in a row over video footage being posted on Snapchat, a court heard yesterday.
Ava White had been with a group of girls hours after Liverpool’s Christmas lights switch-on when she was stabbed in the neck, a jury heard.
They had been ‘singing and dancing and messing around’ when they encountered another group of children, one of whom began filming Ava’s ‘antics’, it was alleged.
Ava, who was not carrying any kind of weapon, demanded that the boy delete the footage as a ‘heated’ argument escalated, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
‘His response to this confrontation was to pull out his knife and stab Ava in the neck,’ prosecutor Charlotte Newell, QC, said.
Ava clutched her neck, with her friends initially assuming she had been punched or strangled. But the young girl had suffered a single wound more than two inches deep, which caused catastrophic bleeding.
She died later, on November 25 last year, in Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Meanwhile the 14-year-old boy, who had come to the city centre with a three-inch flick-knife, tried to cover up what happened by discarding the blade, the phone and his coat, Miss Newell said.
Later that evening he allegedly told police ‘a series of lies’, including that he had not been there and someone else had killed Ava.
The youth, who cannot be named due to his age, appeared via videolink at the first day of his trial yesterday, and is expected to say he stabbed Ava in self-defence. Jurors were told he has ADHD and has been given a fidget toy to help him concentrate.
Miss Newell said the defendant took out his phone and began filming Ava as she was dragged along the ground by friends, and that he intended to share it on social media.
Members of Ava’s family sobbed in the gallery as jurors were shown CCTV footage of the fatal stabbing near the Liverpool One shopping area.
The teenager denies murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.
The trial continues.