Ava White: Boy, 15, who stabbed schoolgirl to death in Snapchat video row jailed for life

Twelve-year-old girl had been having ‘the time of her life with friends’ in Liverpool city centre before fatal confrontation with teenager

Friends of Ava said the 15-year-old boy ‘grinned’ after stabbing her (PA)

A 15-year-old boy who stabbed schoolgirl Ava White to death in a row over a Snapchat video has been jailed for life.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will serve a minimum of 13 years behind bars after stabbing the 12-year-old in the neck following an argument in Liverpool city centre on 25 November 2021.

He claimed it was an act of self-defence but a jury found him guilty of murder in May after deliberating for two hours and eight minutes following a trial that lasted just over two weeks.

Charlotte Newell QC, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that in the hour before her death, Ava had been “having the time of her life with her friends”.

The court heard pre-recorded evidence from a 14-year-old friend of Ava’s, who said the group had shared some vodka and were “messing about” when they saw the flash of phone cameras and realised they were being recorded by a group of four boys, including the defendant.

Ava and a friend approached the boys and asked them to stop filming and delete the footage, before being joined by more of her friends, including two older boys, jurors were told.

The jury heard the older boys left but the defendant, who was 14 at the time, and his friends then “jeered” at Ava, causing her to run towards them.

Footage captured on cameras at the back of the city’s Primark store showed Ava push the defendant and him back away before he raised his hand in front of him showing a “reflective object”.

Schoolgirl Ava White was ‘having the time of her life with friends’ before she was fatally stabbed in the neck in Liverpool city centre (PA)

The video then showed him running away from the scene and Ava holding her hands to her neck.

Friends of Ava said the 15-year-old boy “grinned” after stabbing her.

The court heard the defendant discarded his knife and took off his coat, which was later found in a wheelie bin.

CCTV showed him and his friends in a shop where the defendant took a selfie and the group bought butter, which he said was for crumpets.

He then went to a friend’s home and when his mother contacted him because police wanted to speak to him, he told her he was playing Call of Duty on a PlayStation.

After he was arrested, the teen initially told police he had not been in the city centre but in later interviews blamed another boy for the stabbing.

Additional reporting by Press Association