The life of a boy who unleashed a tsunami of grief and shock on Liverpool will be examined from his birth, until the moment he killed 12-year-old Ava White, to find out one question - Why?
When detectives began investigating who stabbed popular Notre Dame High School student Ava in Liverpool City Centre on November 25, 2021, the facts were horrific but relatively uncomplicated. A 14-year-old boy lashes out with a flick-knife during a petty row over him filming Ava on his phone, and causes catastrophic injuries to her neck. With extensive CCTV coverage and plenty of witness evidence, finding the killer happened within hours.
Merseyside Police were not dealing with a hardened criminal with gangland connections. The culprit, who cannot be identified, was 'Boy A', a deeply immature south Liverpool teenager with ADHD and who stood little chance of outsmarting murder detectives.
READ MORE: Family sobs in court as Ava White's murderer locked up for life
But the question of why children like Boy A feel the need or desire to pick up a blade and carry it around with them is a far more difficult question to answer. During his trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Boy A was asked by prosecutor Charlotte Newell, QC, why he took a knife into Liverpool City Centre the day Ava was stabbed.
He simply answered: "I thought I was big".
In a media briefing ahead of the sentencing of Boy A, Detective Superintendent Sue Coombs, who led the investigation into Ava's murder, was asked why the young killer had carried a knife that day.
She said: "I don't know the reason he had that knife, and in cases such as this we will undertake with partners quite a comprehensive review into all the circumstances from, likely, birth to the night in question, trying to piece together what the motivation was and whether anything could have been done by any of the agencies to prevent or predict what happened."
Superintendent Phil Mullally, Merseyside Police's knife crime lead, said Merseyside has seen a reduction of 11-to 15-year-olds who are victims of knife crime, from around 8.5% to around 5.5%. However he added "one victim is one victim too many".
He said: "There is a raft of work that goes on to ultimately work in that preventative space around tackling the perception of carrying a knife, especially with young people within Merseyside."
One of the biggest efforts in tackling violence among young people in Merseyside is the Violence Reduction Partnership, a project based on successes in Scotland and Colombia. North of the border, Scotland managed to reduce it's murder rate by almost half by tackling violence from a public health perspective - like a disease that can spread through the population.
One idea which found success on the narco-crime ridden streets of Cali is the idea of working with children right from birth, with a mindset of preventing violence. The initiative, translated into English, was dubbed 'Born not to Die' - the idea that children have a better future than falling into crime and violence.
Supt. Mullally said: "We know if we can intervene at that younger stage, with say an educational input, some bespoke mentoring - we have something called violence mentors in school environments - we know that we can change that the path of a young person's thought process to carrying and picking up a weapon.
"That work goes on day in day out, that is specialist work by local officers, by partners, to talk to that young person and try and change that mindset."
It is a common refrain for young people arrested with knives in the city to say they felt they needed it for protection. But Supt. Mullally explained why it is misguided. He said: " The comeback that would always be that you are far more likely to be injured from carrying your own weapon.
"For me it's cowardice that you would actually think about picking up a weapon, there may be a whole host of reasons and it is not as simple as an individual just going into a kitchen cabinet and picking a knife up. Because actually when you start to look back at why that individual has decided that it is a good thing to do, you start to unravel a whole host of maybe issues - whether it be in the family environment, whether it be in education, legal, health whatever it is, to pick up a weapon actually take it out onto the street is really quite complex, and we have got to get to the understanding of that.
"But the answer would always be you are more likely to be injured. If you are fearful, especially as a child, go and speak to an adult and explain your fears. Come to Merseyside Police; we will assist you with support, advice and guidance to better understand your issues and hopefully guide you down a different route."
The officers were asked whether those young people caught carrying weapons are regularly telling professionals that they think it is glamourous or cool. Det. Supt. Coombs said: "I think it is probably part of the whole issue of knife crime that, I suppose, people and young people think they're picking up and taking a knife with them for protection or to feel bigger or braver, but ultimately what will happen is a sequence of events that they don't have an awful lot of control over, and and things happen without much thought when there is a knife in your possession.
"That's the tragedy of these sort of cases isn't it. Nobody would think this was the right thing to, do would they? But because they've got easy access to something they have brought out with them, this kind of tragedy tends to happen."
Today Boy A was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 13 years in custody. But for Ava's family, nothing will take away the pain of that day. In a statement read to the court her mum, Leanne White, said: "How I miss my beautiful girl. My heart is broken. I will never hear her laughter, I will never hold her in my arms. I still hear the laughter and can see the beautiful smiling face of my 12-year-old baby.
"That is all I have to hold on to, precious memories are all I have left of my Ava.”
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