LITTLE BOY BLUE
Murder of Rhys Jones: Police Tapes documentary on ITV to reveal chilling secret recordings that caught his killer
SECRET police recordings used to nail the killer of Rhys Jones will be heard for the first time in a new documentary into the murder that shocked the nation.
Everton fan Rhys was just 11 years old when he was gunned down in a Liverpool street as he walked home from football practice.
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He had become an innocent victim in a war between the city’s crime gangs.
Cops investigating the 2007 murder were faced with a wall of silence.
It saw them bug the homes of their prime suspects including Croxteth Crew gang member James Yates and killer Sean Mercer.
The covert recordings provided the crucial evidence police needed to convict the pair and others.
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Former Dept Sup Dave Kelly recalls: "I met Mel and Steve [Rhys's parents], lovely people - their world had been wrecked. And then she got hold of my hand and she was comforting me.
“And I knew then, more than any other time, that... We had to get people brought to justice for them."
Kelly is among the senior officers involved in the case Susanna Reid interviews as part of ITV’s The Murder Of Rhys Jones: Police Tapes.
It also sees Rhys’ parents Mel and Steve reflect on their thoughts on the lasting impact of the case 11 years on.
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They tell her how they have struggled to make sense of the tragedy in the immediate aftermath and in the years since.
Mel describes Rhys as “ a very happy, outgoing little boy”.
Later she describes the murder as “kids killing kids”.
After months of investigations and arrests, 18-year-old Sean Mercer – a member of the Croxteth Crew gang – was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, serving a minimum of 22 years.
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Fellow gang members, including James Yates, Nathan Quinn, Melvin Coy, Dean Kelly and Gary Kays were also convicted of assisting an offender.
As Rhys lay dying Yates helped Mercer dispose of his bike, clothes and the gun he had provided him with just before the shooting.
At the time Mercer’s “Crocky Crew” were involved in a tit-for-tat turf war with the Strand Gang, aka the “Nogga Dogz”, from the neighbouring Norris Green estate.
There had been more than 20 reports of shots from cars or bikes between 2004 and 2007.
On August 22, 2007, Mercer was told three members of the rival gang had been seen on Crocky Crew territory.
Mercer raced to the location on his BMX, armed with the Smith & Wesson .455 revolver from the First World War.
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He fired three shots. The second of which hit Rhys in the back.
None of his intended targets were hit.
The Murder of Rhys Jones: Police Tapes is on ITV at 9pm on June 21.
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