Boy says Ava White didn't want fight with the teenager who stabbed her in Liverpool city centre

A young friend of 12-year-old Ava White said she didn't want a fight with her alleged killer. Ava died after suffering a 'catastrophic' 5cm wound to the neck after being stabbed by a 14-year-old boy in Liverpool city centre in November last year.

Boy A, from south Liverpool, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has accepted responsibility for her fatal injury, but says he acted in self-defence and denies murder and manslaughter. On Wednesday (May 11) at Liverpool Crown Court, evidence was heard from Ava's friends about the events that unfolded on the evening of November 25, 2021.

One friend of Ava's, aged 11, referred to as Boy H, told detectives he didn't see Ava being stabbed, but saw her collapse on to the ground outside Primark. Describing the build up to the stabbing, The Liverpool Echo reported that he said Ava was 'angry' that Boy A and three friends - Boys B, C and D - had filmed her on their mobiles.

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When being cross-examined by the defendant's barrister, Nick Johnson QC, the witness told the court he and Ava's friends - but not Ava - had gone to a shop on London Road where some of them had bought vodka before heading back in town to meet Ava and the others.

He said they were then asked to move on by a St John's Shopping Centre security guard, who threatened to call the police because some of them were damaging plants. Boy H said those doing that had been drinking vodka.

Boy H denied Ava was seen lying on the ground because she had been drinking and said she was just playing with her friends. He agreed Ava had been 'angry' at the boys filming her.

Mr Johnson said: "Did she want