‘That knife could have been taken off the street that night’: Mother of murdered Ava White, 12, who was stabbed to death in petty row outside Primark says police should be allowed to stop and search teens with previous knife crime offences
- Ava White was stabbed to death in Liverpool by a teen boy in November 2021
- Her mum is calling for laws that allow young offenders to be searched by police
The mother of 12-year-old schoolgirl Ava White who was stabbed to death says police should be allowed to stop and search teens with previous knife offences.
Leeann White says if police had the same powers for young offenders as they did for adults, the knife that was used to kill her daughter might have been taken off the streets beforehand.
She has called for a pilot scheme that lets police stop and search adults over 18 who have previously been convicted of carrying bladed or offensive weapons to be extended to cover children as young as 12.
Ava was fatally stabbed to death by a 14-year-old boy outside a Primark in Liverpool city centre in November 2021 in a petty row over a social media video, with her brutal murder shocking the nation.
Her killer, who was so young he struggled to see over the counter at the police station when he was arrested and cannot be named due to his age, was later jailed for 13 years for murder after a jury rejected his claims of self-defence.
Ava White, pictured here in her school uniform, was stabbed in the neck by a 14-year-old boy after a row about a social media video
The 12-year-old was fatally injured during the stabbing in Liverpool city centre on November 25, 2021
Ms White, who has become a knife campaigner, says it makes her ‘really angry’ to think that if police had the ability to stop and search children her daughter’s death ‘could have been stopped’.
Liverpool’s police force, Merseyside Police, is taking part in a two-year trial of serious violence reduction orders (SVROs) which give officers the power to stop and search adults who have previously been convicted of bladed or offensive weapons charges.
READ MORE HERE: Mother of 12-year-old stabbing victim sobs as teenage murderer is jailed for at least 13 years
Ms White told Sky News she would be happy to see that scheme extended to young offenders.
She said: ‘I would rather have my child searched than my child be murdered. Personally I think they should be done as young as 12 – we know 12-year-olds are committing murders, we know 12-year-olds are being arrested with bladed articles.
‘Ava’s murderer was 14 – maybe if these powers were launching earlier and he’d been stopped and searched Ava might not have been murdered and that knife might have been took off the street that night.’
Merseyside Police says recorded knife crime has risen on a national level for several years, but that January this year saw the lowest level of knife crime in its area since April 2020.
Superintendent Phil Mullally, Merseyside’s Lead for Serious Violence and Knife Crime said: ‘We welcome the opportunity to trial these new powers and keep the pressure on those who are involved in the most serious violent crime and ultimately, keep our communities safe.
‘Both serious violence and knife crime are falling in Merseyside, but we know there is still work to do. These new powers will enable us to continue to drive down knife crime and reoffending.
‘Merseyside Police is absolutely committed to targeting those who bring misery to our communities and getting knives and offensive weapons off our streets.
‘The new powers will enable a more proactive approach for repeat offenders and will help us protect those most vulnerable from being drawn into further exploitation by criminal gangs.’
The boy stabbed Ava with a three-inch-long flick knife, pictured here, and was later found guilty of her murder
Ms White said her life had been ‘dimmed forever’ following her daughter’s death. Pictured: Ava (left) and Ava with her older sister Mia and mother Leeann (right)
However, a spokesperson for human rights group Liberty said stop and search is ‘incredibly traumatic and harmful’.
They told Sky News: ‘Imagine every time you walk down your local high road or on your way to school, and being stopped and searched by police.
‘It’s incredibly humiliating, and ultimately, it’s not effective. Why do we invest so much in a tool that we know alienates young people? It causes distrust, and doesn’t do anything positive to make our communities safer and more thriving.’
READ MORE HERE: Video shows moment youngster struggled to see over counter at police station after he was arrested for stabbing girl to death outside Primark in row over social media video
It was claimed Ava’s killer had been de-sensitised to violence after witnessing his father attack his mother at home and had been made the subject of a community resolution notice four months earlier for hitting a police community support officer on the head.
At the time of Ava’s murder, he was also awaiting trial for assaulting two women and had come to the attention of police because of concerns he was being groomed into a criminal gang, the court heard.
Sentencing the boy, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attended a special school, High Court judge Mrs Justice Yip told him he would serve at least 13 years in a young offenders’ institute and prison before being eligible for parole.
The trial heard Ava had been drinking vodka with her friends on November 25, 2021, when they encountered the boy and his friends. She became angry when he filmed her rolling around and laughing on the floor and posted it online.
Ava demanded he delete the video from Snapchat and an argument developed which resulted in Ava being stabbed. Jurors heard how the boy ‘grinned’ as Ava lay dying, before running off to discard his coat and knife.
Ms White said when she first received a phone call to say Ava had been stabbed, she thought it was a mistake.
She said: ‘I’d not long been home from work and my sister called me. I can remember just when she said it I thought she’d made some mistake to be honest.
‘I can remember just everything being manic, I remember just getting into the taxi, getting into the hospital and then everything was just a blur.’
In a tearful victim impact statement made after her daughter’s killer was locked up, she had said she was so ‘heartbroken’ she no longer had anything to live for.
‘In November last year the light in my life was dimmed forever,’ she said.
‘The moment Ava died is now yesterday, tomorrow and for ever, it is the past, the present and the future. My beloved Ava dies all over again every morning I wake up.’
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