Boy, 14, guilty of murdering 12-year-old Ava White after Snapchat video row

A boy has been found guilty of stabbing Ava White to death in Liverpool.

The 14-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of murdering Ava, 12, at court today.

The incident happened following a row over a Snapchat video, with the court hearing that a ‘chance encounter’ with the 14-year-old boy led to her tragic death.

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Ava was stabbed in the neck at Liverpool’s Christmas lights switch-on last November, after asking a group of boys to stop filming her and friends, Sky News reports.

A jury was told that the defendant then laughed and ran away following the attack, although the boy claimed he had acted in self-defence and denied murder.

However, he was found guilty after the two-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Family members were left in tears in court after a 20-second clip showing the stabbing – which happened on November 25th – was played.

The boy, who was found to have a 7.5cm flick blade, previously pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

Ava and several of her friends, who were all aged between 11 and 15, shared some alcohol together near the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool city centre when the boy and his friends saw them and filmed a video for Snapchat.

Prosecutor Charlotte Newell QC said Ava asked them to stop filming before the boys started ‘jeering’ at her – she then ran towards them before the defendant ‘thrust a knife into the neck of this unarmed child’.

She told the court: “His reaction at the time was to smirk, to laugh and to run away, leaving Ava to die whilst he sought to distance himself from his actions.”

Ava’s last words were ‘don’t leave me’, as she lay dying on the ground.

The court heard that the boy ‘began a conscious cover-up’ after the incident, attempting to discard his knife, phone and coat.

When arrested he told a ‘series of lies’ about his movements at the time of the killing, the jury was told, saying he was playing Call of Duty at a mate’s house, before saying another boy had stabbed Ava.

While giving evidence, the 14-year-old claimed he was ‘scared’ Ava was going to ‘jump him’,  and that he was only trying to ‘frighten her away’ because he was ‘scared’ – telling court he thought Ava was a boy and might have had ‘a weapon’.