Mum of murdered Liverpool schoolgirl reacts to new knife crime drama
Leeann White's daughter Ava was stabbed to death in 2021
A mum whose 12-year-old daughter was stabbed to death in Liverpool says a new drama portraying a similar case highlights how the criminal justice system revolves around the perpetrator - rather than the victim.
Adolescence focuses on the story of a 13-year-old boy who is arrested on suspicion of the murder of a female classmate.
It also shines a light on the impact of social media, misogyny and influencers on teenagers.
The show has received widespread acclaim and has even been raised in parliament.
Ava White was killed by a 14-year-old boy in Liverpool City Centre in 2021, with her killer jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 13 years.
Her mum Leeann said she watched it as Ava's name was said regularly in connection with it.
Leeann said:
"After watching it, to be honest it gave me the sense that the murderer's family still had some sense of normality.
"From the work van that his dad had, so it was obvious his dad was still able to go to work. I was never able to return back to my work.
"With the celebrating of his birthday - we don't even think about birthdays any more, we can't.
"My Ava is never coming back"
"The phone call he had - I'll never ever be able to hear Ava's voice again but he still can hear his child's voice.
"And the crying into the bed at the end. Your child is coming back to that bed - he may be an adult but at some point he's coming back, my Ava is never coming back.
"(I felt) anger that although their child is in jail, they still can hear his voice, they can still have visits and they can still have some type of normality - I'm never getting that back ever."
She added:
"I think around the social media part of it, highlighting that part of it and the dangers of infuelcners on our children, I think that was a really good thing to bring up.
"All I could get from watching it from my point of view is just looking at the perpetrator's lives, compared to mine."
Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley raised the topic of Adolescence at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday (19 March) - calling on Sir Keir Starmer to back the campaign to 'to counter toxic misogyny early' and 'give young men the role models they deserve.'
The Ava White Foundation was set up in Ava's memory to educate young people on the dangers of knives - Leeann has been going to schools across the country to deliver education on how to stop a catastrophic bleed.
Leeann said:
"It's going really well. The kids are really getting involved and the amount of kids that we've now trained to be able to stop a catastrophic bleed is now in the hundreds.
"We wanted to give them vital tools to the kids if they ever are in a situation... it doesn't always have to be a stab wound, it could be any catastrophic bleed at all."
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