Jury considering its verdicts as boy, 14, is accused of murdering Ava White, 12

The jury in the trial of a teenage boy accused of murdering 12-year-old Ava White has retired to consider its verdicts.

The schoolgirl died after being stabbed in the neck in Liverpool city centre just after 8.30pm on November 25 last year.

A trial at Liverpool Crown Court has heard the 14-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admits stabbing her but claims he did so accidentally in self-defence.

He denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

Jurors retired to consider their verdicts just before 11.30am on Tuesday.

During the trial, which has lasted just over two weeks, the court was told Ava and her friends became involved in a row with the defendant and three of his friends after the boys recorded Snapchat videos of the group.

Friends of Ava claimed the boy laughed after stabbing her in School Lane.

The defendant said he had wanted to “frighten her away” because he was scared she would “jump” him.

He told the jury: “I promise, I didn’t mean to hit her.”

Earlier in the evening, he heard one of Ava’s group threaten to stab his friend if he did not delete a video of Ava, he claimed.

After Ava was fatally hurt, the defendant ran away, discarded his knife and took off his coat, which was later found in a wheelie bin, the court heard.

CCTV showed him and his friends in a shop where the defendant took a selfie and the group bought butter, which he said was for crumpets.

He then went to a friend’s home and, when his mother contacted him because police wanted to speak to him, he told her he was playing a video game.

After he was arrested, just after 10.30pm, he initially told police he had not been in the city centre, but in later interviews blamed another boy for the stabbing.

The knife, which had a 7.5cm long blade, was recovered by police in March after the defendant’s legal team passed on information about its location.