Ava White: Boy said 'get out of my face' before stabbing girl

Ava White died after being stabbed outside a Primark store in Liverpool in November

A teenage boy said "get out my face, lad" before fatally stabbing 12-year-old Ava White, a court has heard.

Ava was stabbed to death in Liverpool city centre while out with friends on 25 November 2021.

One of her friends told Liverpool Crown Court they had gone over to a group of boys and asked them to delete videos after noticing them filming.

A 14-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon but denies murder.

In pre-recorded evidence, the girl said 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 walked away so they followed them to a side street near a Primark store.

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Ava and the defendant then got "face to face" and she said "delete the video", the friend told the court.

She continued: "The next minute we just hear 'get out of my face, lad', and I thought he pushed her, but he stabbed her.

"He was circling around us with a smirk on his face."

Balloons were released at the start of the vigil in memory of Ava in December

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."

The court has 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.

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