A YOUTH DISPUTE TURNED MURDER STABBING OF AVA WHITE

INSIDE THE CASE OF ONE OF THE UK'S YOUNGEST PROSECUTED MURDERERS

- Olivia Harrowell

Ava White was just 12 years old when she was fatally stabbed in the neck by a 14-year-old boy while out looking at Christmas lights with her friends in Liverpool, England. It was yet another deadly attack in the knife crime epidemic that has ravaged the UK. Initially, a court order restricted the release of the schoolboy killer's name, but after turning 18 behind bars last month, he has been revealed as Harry Gilbertson.

The 2022 trial heard that the dispute began after Gilbertson and his group of friends had been taking Snapchat videos of Ava and her young female friends while in the city centre on November 25, 2021. The groups were unknown to each other, and when Ava noticed the flash on one of their phones, she decided to confront the boys. After a short argument in an alley between the two, Gilbertson pulled out a flick knife and plunged it into the young girl’s neck. The boy initially claimed he stabbed her in self-defence, but was quickly found guilty in his trial.