Schoolgirl said she could ‘batter’ teenage boy before fatal stabbing

The court heard pre-recorded evidence from a friend of 12-year-old Ava White.

Ava White (Merseyside Police/PA)

Schoolgirl Ava White said she could “batter” a 14-year-old boy who went on to fatally stab her, a court has heard.

The Liverpool Crown Court jury in the trial of the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, heard pre-recorded evidence from a friend of 12-year-old Ava’s, who was with her in the city centre before the stabbing on November 25 last year.

The girl, 14, said the group of friends 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.

She said she tried to pull Ava back as she spoke to the boys to ask them to delete the videos, but Ava pushed her off.

She was like 'he's the same size as me I'll batter him'

Ava White's friend

She said: “I was saying to leave it. She was pushing me off her. She was fuming.

“She was like ‘he’s the same size as me I’ll batter him’.”

She added: “Ava wouldn’t stop trying to front them.”

In a pre-recorded cross-examination, Nick Johnson QC, defending, asked the girl if Ava had threatened the defendant, and she said no.

She said: “Not like she was threatening to his face or nothing.

“I told her not to argue because it would end up bad, and she said ‘I should be able to batter him because he’s the same height’.”

She said she did not hear Ava call the defendant and his friends a “gang of mings”.

The girl told police she and a couple of friends sat down on benches on Church Street while Ava, the defendant and others went round the corner to the side of the Primark store.

She said after what felt like two seconds they heard screaming and she said to a friend: “Oh my God, there’s murder.”

When they walked round the corner to see what had happened, they saw Ava walking towards them, she said.

She said: “She just looked really panicked. She was trying to undo her coat.”

The teenager broke down in tears during her police interview as she described seeing her friend’s injuries.

She said: “We were shouting ‘someone help, call an ambulance, she’s 12 and she’s been stabbed in the neck’.”

Another friend, also 14, said she had heard Ava shout something like “bunch of mings” as they walked behind the defendant and his group.

The girl said Ava ran over to the group because she wanted them to delete the video of her, but not because she wanted a fight.

She agreed Ava was angry and she heard her say “let’s batter them” or “let’s batter him”.

She also heard her say something along the lines of “delete the video, you scruff” to the defendant, she told the court.

The defendant denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.