Youth said ‘Get out my face’ before fatal stabbing of Ava White, court told

The 12-year-old schoolgirl died following an incident in Liverpool city centre last November.

Schoolgirl Ava White was fatally stabbed during an incident in Liverpool city centre last November (Trinity RC Primary School/PA) (PA Media)

A teenage boy said “Get out my face, lad” before fatally stabbing schoolgirl Ava White, a court has heard.

On Friday, the jury in the trial of the 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, heard evidence from a friend who was with Ava during the incident in Liverpool city centre on the evening of November 25 last year.

In pre-recorded evidence, the girl said they had gone over to a group of boys and asked them to delete videos after noticing them filming.

She said 12-year-old Ava had tried to grab a phone from one of the boys to delete the video but “he wouldn’t have any of it”.

She said: “We didn’t know him and we didn’t want something of us on social media looking silly and acting silly.”

She said the boys, who included the defendant, walked away, so they followed them to a side street near the Primark store.

Ava and the defendant got “face to face” and Ava said “Delete the video”, the girl said.

She went on: “The next minute we just hear ‘Get out my face, lad’, and I thought he pushed her, but he stabbed her.”

She added: “He was circling around us with a smirk on his face.”

In cross-examination, the girl said they followed the boys to the side of Primark because someone, who she thought may have been Ava, said “They’re going to get away”.

Asked why she ran after the boys with Ava, the girl said: “‘Cause she was going to go on her own so we went too.”

She agreed that Ava had been going to “front” the four boys on her own and she thought she remembered Ava shouting something like “bunch of mings”.

Nick Johnson QC, defending, asked: “Did she want a scrap?”

The girl said: “She wanted to, I think, but I don’t think she would have.”

Liverpool Crown Court also heard from a 14-year-old boy, who said he had been round the corner when Ava was injured.

He said: “I just heard Ava scream ‘I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been stabbed’.”

The defendant, who appeared in court via video-link, denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.