Ava White was a 12-year-old girl who was murdered by a 14-year-old boy on 25 November 2021, in the English city of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. She was stabbed after a row over a
Snapchat
Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...
video. The boy has not been named for legal reasons.
Background
Ava was a student of
Notre Dame Catholic College in Everton.
Murder
On 25 November 2021, Ava and her friends, aged between 11 and 15 were playing and sharing alcohol near the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool while waiting for the switching on of the Christmas lights.
A teenage boy and his friends, aged between 13 and 15 started filming them with intent to share it on Snapchat. Ava aggressively asked them to stop and delete the recording. The unarmed girls ran towards and the teenage boy stabbed her in the neck with a knife, laughed and ran away.
She was taken to
Alder Hey Children's Hospital
Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a children's hospital and NHS foundation trust in West Derby, Liverpool, England. It is one of the largest children's hospitals in the United Kingdom, and one of several specialist hospitals within the Liverpool ...
but died shortly after.
Following a two-week trial at
Liverpool Crown Court
The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, in Derby Square, Liverpool, are operated by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service. The building is used by the Crown Court, the Magistrates' Court, Liverpool District Probate Registry and the Liverpool Yout ...
, the boy who had initially denied
murdering Ava by saying it was another boy, later claimed to have acted in self-defence. The court was shown CCTV footage, police recorded interviews were presented and a 20-second clip showing the stabbing were played during the trial of the boy. Her friends also testified. Among the footage presented in court is of him and a friend throwing away his coat and knife as they ran from the scene of the murder.
He was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 13 years.
Ava was murdered on
.
She is believed to be the youngest victim of knife violence in the UK since
Damilola Taylor
Damilola Adegbite (born Oluwadamilola Adegbite; 18 May 1985) is Nigerian actress, Model, and Television personality. She played Thelema Duke in the soap opera ''Tinsel'', and Kemi Williams in the movie '' Flower Girl''. She won Best Actress in a T ...
in 2000.
Memorial
* On 2 December 2021,
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...
and
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...
fans joined in a round of applause as a banner with an anti-knives message was displayed during the game.
* On 23 January 2022, a crowd bringing along balloons of the figure 13 or the letter A gathered outside
Anfield stadium and sang songs in memory of Ava.
See also
*
Killing of Damilola Taylor
On 27 November 2000, ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor was killed in London, in what became one of the United Kingdom's most high-profile killings. Two brothers who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing were convicted of mansla ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Ava
2021 murders in the United Kingdom
Murder in Liverpool
November 2021 events in the United Kingdom
Murder trials
Juvenile delinquency
Knife attacks
Snap Inc.