Posted by The defendant was described by the judge as having ADHD and ‘communication skills [that] are perhaps not as developed as other 14-year-olds’
Life sentence for teenage killer of Ava White
Ava White’s killer has been sentenced to a minimum of 13 years at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday.
The 15-year-old boy was given a life sentence for the fatal stabbing, which happened in Liverpool city centre on November 25 last year.
Addressing the court at his sentencing, Ava’s mother Leanne said: “My beloved Ava dies all over again every morning I wake up.
“My Ava dies again every moment she is not with us for the rest of our lives.”
The defendant, who was 14 at the time of Ava’s death, stabbed the schoolgirl in the neck following a row over a Snapchat video.
He claimed he accidentally stabbed her in self defence but a jury convicted him of murder following a two-week trial in May.
Boy A, who turned 15 a month after being found guilty for the murder of Ava White, was described by the judge as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and “communication skills [that] are perhaps not as developed as other 14-year-olds”.
Boy A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was therefore tried remotely via a video link into the courtroom, from the “special unit” where he was being housed, which was “child appropriate”.
Applications from the media for reporting restrictions to be lifted on the defendant’s identity were refused by the judge.
The defendant appeared with an adult helper who enforced breaks once or twice an hour and had to explain questions the court asked him in simple language. Boy A played with “fidget toys” during the trial, which the judge said were to help him deal with his ADHD and focus.
The young ages of both the victim and killer shocked the public. At the time of his arrest, Boy A was only 4’11” and weighed just 38.6kg (6st 1lb).
On the night of Ava’s death, November 25 last year, Boy A went into the centre of Liverpool with three friends. Boy A brought a flick knife out with him, which he told the jury he had “because I thought I was big”.
Boy A and White’s group of roughly 10 friends had an altercation over a Snapchat video that he and his friends filmed of the group.
Ava’s friends challenged Boy A and his friends over the videos and urged them to delete them, then followed them through the city centre.
In an alley, Ava confronted Boy A. He drew out a flick knife with a 7.5cm blade, and stabbed her in the neck. The knife plunged five to six centimetres into her neck, damaging her jugular vein and causing “catastrophic” bleeding that led to her death shortly after arriving at hospital.
Boy A argued that he was only intending to show her the knife to scare her away, but due to their rapid movements he accidentally stabbed her neck.
Boy A discarded the knife in undergrowth, got rid of his phone, and ditched his “bubble” coat, which he believed would identify him as a suspect.
Soon after 9pm, police went to his home, where his mother answered the door and told police that he was not there. She called her son, who told her that he was playing video games at a friend’s house, and sent her a picture of a gaming console.
They exchanged more texts that evening, with her writing: “Stop panicking x”, and consoling him that he would not be arrested if he hadn’t done anything.
Boy A was arrested at 10.30pm on the night of the attack, and initially lied to the police about what he had been doing that night.
During his trial, he explained that this was because his “head was everywhere”.
“I was 14 and didn’t know the difference between [murder and manslaughter] and I was just scared to be honest”, he said.