Ava White murder trial: Stabbed 12-year-old pleaded ‘don’t leave me’ to friends as she lay dying, court hears

Defendant, 14, denies murder and alternative charge of manslaughter

Schoolgirl Ava White begged her friends not to leave her as she lay dying on the ground after being fatally stabbed, a court has been told.

Pre-recorded evidence from friends who were with the 12-year-old in Liverpool city centre on the day of the stabbing was played at Liverpool Crown Court during the trial of a 14-year-old boy accused of Ava’s murder.

In one police interview, a 15-year-old girl told how she ran after the defendant as she thought he had punched Ava in the neck. She then returned to see the victim lying on the floor.

“I remember her saying to us ‘don’t leave me’. That’s the last words I heard out of her mouth,” she told the officers.

A 14-year-old boy is accused of killing Ava White (Merseyside Police/PA) (PA Media)

The witness said she noticed the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, filming Ava with three other boys while in the city centre and asked them to delete the videos.

The 15-year-old girl told police she had also argued with the accused, adding: “He was going ‘you scruff, you scruff’ and calling me a slag and all that.”

The boy maintains that the friend’s claims are not true, Nick Johnson QC, defending, told the court.

The group of boys then walked away, the girl continued, but the defandant proceeded to shout “look at the state of youse” to the friends and Ava “flipped”.

“Obviously Ava was already angry and she wasn’t going to sit there and let a boy speak to her like that,” the witness said.

At 9.10pm on 25 November last year, police visited the home address of the defendant just over half an hour after Ava was stabbed, the court heard.

In a statement, PC Michael Eccleston said the boy’s mother answered the door and rang her son. He refused to tell police where he was and hung up after speaking to the officer’s colleague.

PC Eccleston said the defendant was arrested after he was seen walking down a street at about 10.30pm.

The boy attempted to evade a police vehicle by running past him but he blocked the boy’s path with his body, he added.

Ava died as a result of the stab wound to her neck, Home Office pathologist Dr Jonathan Medcalf said, which was approximately five to six centimetres long and damaged her windpipe and jugular vein, causing catastrophic bleeding.

He believed a moderate degree of force was used.

He added: “I can’t say it was severe but I can’t say it was gentle. I don’t think it was mild force, for example.”

The court heard the blade of the knife measured seven and a half centimetres from tip to hilt.

The 14-year-old defendant denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.