Jailing Rhys Jones’ killer for life, a judge issues a searing condemnation.

A JUDGE has condemned the “stupid, brutal gang conflict”

which led to the murder of 11- year-old Rhys Jones.

Jailing Sean Mercer for a minimum of 22 years for the innocent schoolboy’s senseless killing, Mr Justice Irwin told him: “You are selfish, shallow criminals, remarkable only by the danger you pose to others.”

The judge went on to tell Mercer that he was a coward.

Rhys’ parents, Stephen and Melanie, fought back tears after 18-year-old Mercer was sentenced to life imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.

Supported by his 42-yearold wife, Mr Jones, 45, said: “Finally, justice has been done for Rhys.”

Mercer, a member of a gang called the Croxteth Crew, fired three shots across the Fir Tree pub car park in Croxteth, Liverpool, on August 22 last year.

His targets were rival Strand Gang members, but one of the shots hit Rhys, who was walking home from football training.

The judge branded gang members as “stupid” and immature and told Mercer, who has an Asbo and conviction for possessing a CS gas canister: “This offence arose from the stupid, brutal gang conflict which has struck this part of Liverpool.

“You were caught up in that from a young age, but it is clear you glorified in it. It is wrong to let anyone glorify or romanticise this kind of gang conflict.

“You are not soldiers. You have no discipline, no training, no honour. You do not command respect. You may think you do, but that is because you cannot tell the difference between respect and fear.

“Rhys died at your hands, his death was a tragedy for him, a tragedy for his family and a waste of a young life.

“He died because of your brutality and because you are a coward.

“His parents’ dignity throughout this process has been deeply impressive to any of us who have seen it.

“The way they have behaved has been a standing reproach to those in the dock, and particularly to you, Mercer, who killed their son.”

Mercer, from Croxteth, cycled from the scene to the home of Boy M – a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons – and began a systematic bid to evade justice.

He enlisted the help of James Yates, 20, Nathan Quinn, 18, Dean Kelly, 17, Boy M, Melvin Coy, 25, and Gary Kays, 26.

The seven moved Mercer to Coy’s warehouse, in nearby Kirkby, where he was doused with petrol to remove gunshot residue.

They destroyed his clothes and hid the murder weapon at the home of Boy X – who became a prosecution witness when he accepted an offer of immunity for giving evidence.

The gang members thought they had got away with it.

But detectives had bugged the homes of Boy M and Yates, which produced damning audio evidence.

Nearing the end of the 11- week trial, the jury of seven women and five men took nearly four days to convict Mercer of murder and his accomplices of assisting an offender and firearms charges.

Mr Justice Irwin said that by giving no evidence in the case, Mercer had again proved he was a coward.

“You did not admit what you had done, and the witnesses and Rhys Jones’ family had to go through a twomonth trial,” he said.

Joiner Kays, and father-ofone Coy, were both jailed for seven years for two counts of assisting an offender.

Yates, Quinn, Boy M and Dean Kelly will be sentenced on January 29.