Ava White's mum is demanding that children as young as 12 be searched for knives.
Ava, 12, was killed by a boy just two years older than her after an argument over a video posted on Snapchat in November 2021. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for 13 years after stabbing the schoolgirl in the neck with a flick knife in Liverpool City Centre.
On Wednesday, April 19, Merseyside Police became one of four forces starting a two-year trial of new Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) to search over-18s previously convicted of carrying a blade, MirrorOnline reports.
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But Ava’s mum, Leeann, 40, believes children as young as 12 should also be checked if they are also known to police.
She told MirrorOnline: “At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, we all want weapons off the streets.
"Personally, I think it should be applied as young as 12, especially if they’re known to the police.
"If they’re known for anti-social behaviour, why can’t they stop and search apply to them?”
She said Ava’s murderer had been 14 when he killed her “and maybe if this was launched earlier, he would have been stop and searched and Ava would still be here”.
Leeann remarked: “That knife could’ve been taken off the streets. We all know there’s 12 year olds capable of murder, there’s 12 year olds being caught carrying knives.”
Four police forces across England are this week trialling the new SVROs - Sussex, Merseyside, Thames Valley and West Midlands. Officers will identify knife criminals at risk of reoffending before prosecutors decide if a SVRO application to the courts is necessary.
The order will then give police to approach offenders in a public place and check they are not carrying a knife or bladed article. If breached the criminal could receive up to two years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.
The government say it will be up to police to make sure the offender complies with the stop and search. Merseyside Police said between 2019 and January 2023, it seized more than 10,000 weapons and made more than 3,000 arrests for serious violence offences.
After Ava’s killer was sentenced in July 2022, her family set up a foundation to stop knife crime in her name. Since then Leeann and Ava’s older sister Mia, 19, have successfully campaigned for life saving bleed packs to be installed all around Liverpool.
Last year the grieving sister said: “Every single day, I always go to ring Ava and text her just to see what she’s doing. I don’t think it’s ever going to sink in. It needs to start at a really young age, wanting to engage. Because why would you ever want to ruin someone else’s life and your own?
“No-one should be going through what we’re going through. But if I can stop one child from putting a knife in the pocket...”
Mia has also voiced an interest in speaking in schools about the dangers of knife crime.
She added: “The danger you put yourself in when you put a knife in your pocket. I want to get the message out to stop doing it.”
Ava’s killer - who cannot be named due to his age - has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and had previously been subject to a community resolution notice after hitting a PCSO.
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