Two of Ava White’s friends told a court today the schoolgirl said she could “batter” the boy accused of killing her in the minutes before she was stabbed, a court heard.
Ava died after she was stabbed by a 14-year-old boy in School Lane in Liverpool city centre. Boy A accepts responsibility for her fatal injury, but says he acted in self-defence. The teen, from South Liverpool, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murder and manslaughter.
Today a trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard evidence from two girls who were in the city centre with Ava around the time of the incident about what happened on November 25, 2021. The jury has previously heard how the friends were in town and had been drinking vodka and “messing around” near St John’s Shopping Centre before being moved on by a security guard.
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They then went to Williamson Square before Ava became angry after seeing another group of boys who appeared to be filming them. The groups then began to argue with one another about deleting the videos before the group containing Boy A, the alleged killer, moved towards Church Lane.
The jury already heard from one of Ava’s friends, Girl E, this morning about how she heard Ava talk about being able to “batter” the boy because he was a similar size to her and continued to refuse to delete the video. Yet Girl E said Ava said this more as a comment to her than a threat to the boy himself.
The evidence of another friend, Girl G, was played to jurors this afternoon. While Girl E said she remembered Ava making a remark about “battering” the boy in Williamson Square, Girl G said during her cross examination that she heard Ava say “let’s batter them” as she ran towards Boy A in Church Lane moments before the stabbing took place.
Girl G said she ran with Ava from Williamson Square across Church Street and towards Church Lane as they tried to get Boy A to delete the video he had taken of her. Asking her about the minutes before the attack, Nick Johnson, QC, defending, said: “Did Ava want a fight?” Girl G replied: “She never said to me she wanted a fight, she said she wanted the video deleted.”
He then asked: “Did you hear her say ‘let’s batter him’?” Girl G replied that she did. Mr Johnson said: “When did you hear her say that, as she ran over?” Girl G said: “Yeah.”
Once in Church Lane, Girl G said she remembered Ava running up to Boy A and pushing him but not punching him. She said Boy A then hit Ava’s neck but that she first thought she had just received a punch. Girl G and another friend then ran off after Boy A but were not able to catch up with him. It was as they returned to Church Lane that they found Ava lying on the floor and bleeding.
She told police in her interview: “We could hear everyone screaming. I pushed through a big circle of people out the way, I looked down and saw her lying on the floor.”
Proceeding
