A girl described the moment she saw her friend Ava White screaming after being stabbed in the neck.
Ava, 12, was knifed on School Lane in Liverpool city centre last autumn. A 14-year-old boy, Boy A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accepts stabbing her, but denies murder and manslaughter, saying he acted in self-defence.
A jury at Liverpool Crown Court today watched a recording of an interview detectives carried out with one of Ava's friends, aged 15, on November 26, the day after the fatal incident. Jurors were then played a video of the girl being cross-examined by Boy A's defence lawyers.
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The girl, who the ECHO has referred to as Girl C, said she met Ava and other friends at Queens Square. They went to Williamson Square, where they danced to music outside a pub.
She said a group of four "lads" walked past and because "we were messing about with little Ava" the lads started recording them. Girl C said Ava "got a bit angry" because she didn't want to be filmed and asked them to delete the footage, which they didn't want going on social media.
The witness said the lads deleted the video and her group intended to go to the McDonald's at Liverpool One. But as they approached Church Street, the lads "started shouting stuff" to Ava and "Ava got mad". She said Ava and another girl went over and had "a bit of a disagreement" with them.
Girl C told the officer: "Ava and this smaller lad started arguing more and he pushed her. She went to retaliate, he's backed away... she got in his face, just out of the blue he's brought his arm up, caught her in the neck. We thought at first he's just punched her, then he started running. We ran after him."
The witness said Ava "went pale" and started saying "ow, ow". Girl C said: "She was screaming 'ow'. She pulled her coat down and we could just see all the blood. When we realised she had been stabbed we walked by the Primark, she collapsed on the floor."
Questioned further by detectives, Girl C said Ava had earlier been lying on the ground in a side street near Williamson Square [Richmond Street], when she and her friends picked her up. She said the lads were "laughing" and two or three of them started recording, which was a bit "weird".
She said the lads denied recording them, which "kicked us off a bit", because they knew they had. Girl C said one of three boys with Boy A, a taller boy who the ECHO has referred to as Boy C, revealed he had posted a video on Snapchat and deleted it.
She said they told Ava to "leave it" because it had been deleted. Girl C said: "She was just calling them weirdos and stuff like that. The tall lad was just laughing in her face really."
Girl C said when they all reached Church Street the lads were shouting to Ava again, "winding Ava up". She said: "Ava was just getting angry because he was winding her up and because she is only young."
The witness said she didn't think it sounded like there would be fighting, but in the side street by Primark [Church Alley], Ava started arguing with one of them and they were "in each other's faces". She said: "Then the lad pushed Ava, so Ava retaliated."
Girl C said the "littlest boy" - Boy A - was saying "get out of my face" and pushed her once before Ava "retaliated" and he "got back in her face". She said Boy A was being "cheeky".
She said Ava asked him what he was doing and he backed away from her in a circle and she walked towards him. Girl C said: "He just pulled something from his waistband I think it was and brought his arm up. At first we thought he just punched her, but as he was running I saw a handle, like a black handle in his hand."
Girl C added: "I was like, 'what's that?'" She said Ava was stood there in "shock".
Asked further about the stabbing, she said: "He brought it up to Ava's neck, it was dead fast." She said after that, "he just ran".
The girl explained she had run after the boy but turned back when she saw something in his hand and noticed Ava "the face she was pulling and how white she she went and then I heard screaming".
Girl C said Boy A had a "noticeable smile" on the side of his face. She said he had "kept smiling at her [Ava] like that" with this "cheeky smile". She said he had been laughing at her, "calling her cheeky", before the incident when he stabbed her.
Under cross-examination by Nick Johnson, QC, defending, the girl said Ava was lying on the ground because she was "messing about", not because she had been drinking vodka. She said Ava shouted at the boys about filming her but wasn't screaming and she thought she saw Ava try to grab Boy C's phone.
Girl C said she didn't hear two older boys who came over talk about "blades" or threaten to stab Boy C and didn't see either of these boys with knives or know if they had knives.
She said the lads had been shouting things like "muppet" to Ava when they crossed Church Street. Girl C said: "I think Ava was just wanting them to apologise for saying stuff to her."
Girl C denied that Ava wanted to fight Boy A. She said Boy A "possibly" might have said "get out of my face lad" but she couldn't remember.
Asked if Ava was dressed "a bit like a lad", she said a "little bit" but they all knew she was a girl.
Mr Johnson said: "Obviously you knew she was a girl, but to a stranger might she have looked like a lad?" Girl C replied: "I'm not too sure."
Girl C said she didn't see Ava push Boy A or Ava chasing Boy A. She said just before he stabbed her, Boy A took three or more steps backwards, but she didn't see him "running backwards" away from her.
(Proceeding)
