Teenager found guilty of murdering 12-year-old Ava White

PA Media

A teenage boy who stabbed 12-year-old Ava White following a row over a Snapchat video has been found guilty of her murder.

A jury took two hours and eight minutes to convict the 14-year-old at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday.

More than 20 members of Ava’s family were in the public gallery and there were cheers as the foreman said the boy had been found guilty of murder.

The teenager, who appeared on video-link throughout the trial, put his head in his hands.

Ava White was stabbed following an argument in Liverpool city centre on Thursday November 25 (Merseyside Police/PA) (PA Wire)

He had claimed he accidentally stabbed the schoolgirl in the neck in self-defence.

He told the court he wanted to “frighten her away” after an altercation in Liverpool city centre on the evening of November 25 last year.

He admitted possessing the knife, which the court heard had a 7.5cm blade, but denied her murder and manslaughter.

During the trial, which lasted just over two weeks, the court heard Ava and her friends became involved in an argument with the defendant and three of his friends after the boys recorded Snapchat videos of the group.

Friends of Ava said the boy “grinned” after stabbing her in School Lane and running away.

The defendant told the jury: “I promise, I didn’t mean to hit her.”

He said that earlier in the evening he heard one of Ava’s group threaten to stab his friend if he did not delete a video of Ava.

The court heard that after Ava was struck to the neck the defendant ran away, discarded his knife and took off his coat, which was later found in a wheelie bin.

The coffin of Ava White is carried out of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral following her funeral (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Wire)

CCTV showed him and his friends in a shop where the defendant took a selfie and the group bought butter, which he said was for crumpets.

He then went to a friend’s home and when his mother contacted him because police wanted to speak to him he told her he was playing a computer game.

After he was arrested, just after 10.30pm, he initially told police he had not been in the city centre but in later interviews blamed another boy for the stabbing.

One woman on the jury wiped away a tear as they were discharged by Mrs Justice Yip.

The judge said the boy would be sentenced at a later date.