The teenager who murdered schoolgirl Ava White after the Christmas lights switch-on in Liverpool can be named and pictured for the first time after turning 18.
Harry Gilbertson was 14 when he carried out the cowardly attack on November 25, 2021. He was found guilty of her murder the following year at 15 and locked up for at least 13 years.
Reporting restrictions preventing Gilbertson from being identified were kept in place until his 18th birthday, despite representations from the media, which were supported by Ava’s family.
Ava’s mother Leeann White, 42, said: ‘I wanted the whole world to know who he was. I think Liverpool had the right to know who he was as well.’
Ms White said that since the trial, she had been told very little about Gilbertson but had learnt he had done his GCSEs.
Speaking through tears, she said: ‘It should have been Ava sitting her GCSEs, not him.’
On Ava’s 15th birthday, in January 2024, Ms White’s nephew was sent a photograph from a seemingly fake Snapchat profile which appeared to show Gilbertson posing for the camera with his arms crossed alongside another male whose face had been covered on the photo with a logo and who had his middle finger up.
Ms White reported the photo and was told Gilbertson had been using an iPad for educational purposes and there was a glitch in the system allowing him to use the internet, but was also told the photo had been taken while he was on a visit.
She said she was told he had been ‘read the riot act’ but had no formal punishment.
Ms White said: ‘He didn’t get any privileges taken off him. He just got a telling off, basically.’
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She said she felt ‘really angry’ when she saw the picture.
‘I can never have a photograph with my child now, so why does he have the right? He lost his rights when he murdered my child,’ she said.
Ms White, who has set up a foundation in Ava’s name that provides bleed control kits to premises, said she had mixed emotions about Gilbertson being named.
‘I try not to think about him if I’m being honest, because if I do, I’m just taking a million steps back,’ she said.
‘So, I just try to focus on Ava and doing stuff for her legacy is more important to me than thinking about him.’
When making the decision to keep reporting restrictions in place, trial judge Mrs Justice Yip said there were concerns for Gilbertson’s younger siblings, one of whom had not been told their brother was on trial for murder.
Ms White said: ‘Yet I had to sit my little nephews and nieces down and tell them about Ava, but they could hide everything for him.
‘I feel like they’ve done everything they can to protect him and his family.’
She said she felt her own family had ‘nowhere near’ the same protection.
Ava had been in the city centre with friends on the night the Christmas lights were being switched on.
The group became involved in an argument with Gilbertson and his friends, who had been filming Snapchat videos of them.
Gilbertson was carrying a knife and struck Ava once to the neck, causing her fatal injury, before fleeing the scene, discarding the weapon and getting rid of his coat.
He was seen on CCTV in a shop later that night taking a selfie and buying butter, which he said was for crumpets.
Ms White added: ‘I think he’s got understanding (of what he’s done), he’s quite a clever child.
‘He’s got understanding, he’s just got no remorse.
‘It really doesn’t feel like justice. He still gets to live and breathe. My Ava doesn’t. His mum can see him getting married, having a baby. I’m never going to have that with Ava.’
Since Ava’s death, Ms White, along with Ava’s older sister Mia and her aunt June White, have worked through the Ava White Foundation to provide hundreds of bleed control kits in the hope they can prevent other families from going through what they experienced.
At least six lives have been saved thanks to the kits provided by the Ava White Foundation, Ms White said.
The packs, which include gauze, trauma dressings and tourniquets, are delivered to schools, pubs and businesses and training is given on how to use them.
When a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were stabbed in Kirkby, Merseyside, in April, a bleed control kit donated in Ava’s name to a nearby pub was used to help treat the children, who were both taken to hospital but survived.
Ms White said: ‘I think every establishment should have one. The way knife crime is, it’s not going down, it’s getting worse. Everyone needs to be aware of this training, it’s so easy.’
She said hearing of other children killed through knife crime made her ‘sad for the child but more so for the mum and what she’s got to go through now’.
Since Ava’s death she no longer has ‘good days’ but has ‘OK days and really bad days’, Ms White said.
She added: ‘What keeps me going is I’m keeping Ava’s name out there and that’s more important to me – to keep Ava’s name out there so she’s not forgotten.’
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.’
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