The teenage boy who murdered 12-year-old Ava White can today be named and pictured for the first time after he turned 18.
Harry Gilbertson was just 14 when he stabbed the schoolgirl in the neck following a petty row over a Snapchat video, in November 2021.
Following the attack, the teenager ran away, leaving Ava – who had been in Liverpool city centre with friends to watch the Christmas lights switch-on – bleeding to death on the pavement.
Gilbertson was convicted of Ava’s murder after a two-week trial and locked up for a minimum of 13 years.
But the judge refused calls from Ava’s family and the Press for him to be named, saying the risk to his family, in particular his younger siblings, was too great.
Today, however, the Mail can identify and picture Gilbertson for the first time on his 18th birthday after he officially became an adult.
Ava’s mother, Leeann White, 42, said: ‘It is important the public know who he is.
‘The public know everything about Ava – her name was splashed everywhere when she died.
‘Why shouldn’t everyone know what he did? Why should he be protected?
‘He was the one in the wrong, he was the one who went out that night with a knife.
‘He’s never shown any remorse.
‘I know he was only a child himself when it happened but children know right from wrong and my child knew not to pick up a knife and stab someone.
‘His name needs to be out there to act as a deterrent to others who might be thinking about carrying knives.’
Ms White said that she now believed that ‘with hindsight’ Mrs Justice Yip, who presided over Gilbertson’s trial at Liverpool Crown Court, had been right to prevent him from being named initially.
‘If the judge had named him then he would probably be getting a new identity on his 18th birthday so, in a way, I am glad she didn’t,’ Ms White added.
‘I definitely don’t want that.
‘I’ve waited all this time for his name to be out there, if he was given a new identity and I didn’t know who he was I don’t think I would be able to go on living.’
Ava had been given permission to stay out late to see the lights turned on when they encountered a group of boys including Gilbertson on November 25, 2021.
She became angry when he filmed her and posted it online.
Ava – who attended Notre Dame Catholic College in Everton – demanded Gilbertson delete the video from Snapchat.
But an argument developed and he stabbed her in the neck with a three-inch flick knife.
Gilbertson told jurors he carried the knife to make himself ‘feel big’.
He claimed he stabbed her in self-defence.
But the court heard he ‘grinned’ as Ava lay dying, before running off to discard his coat and the weapon.
Jurors rejected his version of events and convicted him of Ava’s murder.
Mrs Justice Yip was told that Gilbertson was de-sensitised to violence after witnessing his father attack his mother at home.
He had also been made the subject of a community resolution notice four months before Ava’s murder for hitting a police community support officer on the head.
At the time of Ava’s death he was awaiting trial for assaulting two women and was known to local police who were concerned he was being groomed into a criminal gang.
Sentencing Gilbertson, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attended a special school, Mrs Justice Yip highlighted the role that social media played in the case, saying it was tragic that ‘something so small’ as a Snapchat video had left a young girl dead.
She told him: ‘There is only one reason why Ava is dead and that is because you chose to carry a knife and you chose to get it out and use it.’
Ms White told the Mail that she agreed with Esther Ghey, 38, whose 16-year-old daughter Brianna was also stabbed to death by teenage killers, that the Government needed to do more to protect children from dangers associated with social media sites, such as Snapchat.
She said that despite Gilbertson being locked up in a young offenders’ prison he had managed to post a picture of himself on the social media site.
‘I know he got read the riot act for that,’ Ms White added.
‘They told me he used a tablet that was supposed to be for educational purposes to post it and that there was a glitch in the prison systems that allowed him to get onto the Internet, but I just don’t buy that.
‘It’s disgusting, he didn’t even get any extra time added onto his sentence.’
According to Ms White, the image was posted on what should have been Ava’s 15th birthday in January last year.
However Prison Service sources today insisted there was ‘no evidence’ that it was ‘posted’ on that date, saying Gilbertson ‘did not have access to a device’ at that point.
Ms White added: ‘I’ve met Esther and agree with her campaigns.
‘All social media does is cause harm and distress. Everything children are exposed to on there is frightening.’
Although almost four years have passed since Ava’s death, Ms White said she finds it really hard to cope with the loss of her youngest child.
The mother-of-two tearfully added: ‘I’m really up and down.
‘Some days I’m okay, other days are really bad and I can’t stop crying.
‘It doesn’t get any easier, it seems to get harder as time goes on.
‘It really was so senseless what happened to Ava.
‘I don’t agree with violence at all, but I’m always thinking “Why couldn’t he have just pushed or shoved her?”
‘She was only 12, he was 14. She was a girl and he was a boy.
‘Why didn’t he just push her, he didn’t have to stab her in the neck.’
She said the Ava White Foundation, which she set up in the wake of her daughter’s murder, ‘keeps me going.’
The not-for-profit organisation campaigns against knife crime and aims to fund and deliver specialist bleed packs to schools, youth clubs, pubs and train and bus stations across north west England.
They also visits schools to educate schoolchildren on the dangers of carrying knives and to teach them practical life-saving skills.
‘To be honest I don’t know where I would be without it,’ Ms White, a former shop assistant, of Liverpool, added.
‘It gives me a reason to get up in the morning.
‘I know I have to do this for Ava and it keeps me going each day until I get home.’
Today a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: ‘This was an horrendous crime, and our thoughts remain with the family of Ava White.
‘No victim should ever have to see their perpetrators appearing online.
‘We’ve put in place tough measures to clamp down on the use of social media in prisons and have committed to review how we could extend these controls to all places of custody.’
Under prison rules, inmates – including children – face ‘sanctions’ if they are caught in possession of a mobile phone or other illicit device with internet access.