THE MOTHER of Ava White has warned more children will be killed if nothing is done to tackle knife crime.
The schoolgirl was just 12 when she was killed outside a clothing store shortly after a Christmas lights display in Liverpool city centre following a row over a Snapchat video in November 2021.
A 15-year-old boy, who was 14 at the time, was convicted of her murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years in July 2022. He cannot be named for legal reasons.
Ava's heartbroken mother Leeann has now called for police to be given greater stop and search powers.
She wants officers to be able to search children as young as 12 for weapons.
A police officer has powers to stop and search an individual if they have "reasonable grounds" to suspect they are carrying a weapon, illegal drugs, stolen property or anything that can be used to commit a crime.
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Under current laws, there is no minimum age requirement for a person to be stopped and searched, though children cannot be held criminally responsible until they are 10.
But Leeann has said not enough is being done to fight the scourge of knife crime in the UK.
She told The Mirror: "I don’t see a difference to be honest. The only thing I have seen is the new stop and searches coming in but again it needs to target younger people.
"It’s younger people who are carrying knives, as well as adults, and we need to be searching at least 12-year-olds."
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Leean believes there is a chance Ava "would still be here" if wider stop and search powers had been in place at the time of her death.
But charities have shared concern about searches on young children, with Stopwatch arguing the majority of stops are find nothing of significance.
It comes as she has been relentless campaigning for the installation of life-saving bleed kits across Liverpool and cities around the UK.
Leean also attended a celebrity football match in support of anti-knife charities Weapons Down Gloves Up and No More Knives played at Marine FC last weekend.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote to the chief constables of all 43 police forces in England and Wales last month to give her full backing to officers using the full stop and search powers at their disposal.
In the year to March 2022, 99 people under the age of 25 lost their lives to knife crime in England and Wales.
Thirteen of the victims were aged under 16.
Khayri McLean, 15, was ambushed and stabbed to death by masked knifemen outside school gates in Huddersfield in September last year.
Jakele Pusey, also 15, and 17-year-old Jovani Harriott were later convicted of his murder and jailed.
The two killers lay in wait before attacking Khayri with a 30cm weapon outside North Huddersfield Trust School
Tomasz Oleszak, 14, was stabbed to death near a nature reserve in Gateshead October last year.
He suffered an 8cm-deep wound to his chest and died shortly after being rushed to hospital.
Baby-faced Leighton Amies, 15, boasted "I've wetted your boy" – slang for knifed – following the stabbing.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years last month.
Ava, meanwhile, was stabbed at a Christmas lights switch-on event on November 25, 2021.
She was with friends near the Royal Court Theatre when they were approached by a group of boys.
A verbal argument then broke out after one of the boys filmed them, before sharing the footage on Snapchat.
Ava told the boy to stop filming and delete the video, but the argument escalated and she was stabbed in the neck.
Emergency services arrived to find her collapsed on the ground with a member of the public giving first aid, but she died a short time after being rushed to Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
Police forces recorded 49,265 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument last year – a 46 per cent increase compared to the 12 months to March 2012.
The 282 murders involving a knife or sharp instrument last year was also the highest since 1946.
Patrick Green is the CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, an anti-knife crime charity set up in the wake of the 16-year-old's death in June 2008.
He told The Sun: "Last Thursday was the anniversary of Ben's death, so we have been doing a lot of reflection about what has changed about knife crime over the last decade – but it just hasn't.
"There has been no real change, figures are up significantly from ten years ago. Ten years ago, I would be saying parents should be checking their kitchen drawers for knives as young people were smuggling small knives out in their belt buckle.
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"That has changed significantly. Young people carrying knives to protect themselves is a myth that has existed for a long time.
"The thinking now is 'I will carry a bigger knife as it will afford me greater protection and scare you off'. They are also easier to get hold of now through social media."
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