A teenager has been found guilty of the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones who was shot in a Liverpool pub car park.

Sean Mercer, 18, of Croxteth, was convicted of the murder after a nine-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Mercer was 16 when he shot Rhys outside the Fir Tree pub in August 2007 as the schoolboy walked back to his home from football practice.

The court heard Rhys died in the arms of his mother, Melanie, after being shot in the neck.

Mercer, of Good Shepherd Close, was convicted by the jury after almost four days of deliberations.

Fellow gang members James Yates, 20, of Dodman Road and Nathan Quinn, 18, of Wickett Close, both Croxteth; Gary Kays, 26, of Mallard Close and Melvin Coy, 25, of Abbeyfield Drive, both West Derby, Liverpool, and Boy M, 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted unanimously of assisting an offender after they helped Mercer evade the police for months.

Defendant Boy K, who can now be named as Dean Kelly, 17, of Sword Walk, Croxteth, after judge Mr Justice Irwin lifted reporting restrictions, was also convicted of four related charges.

The judge also lifted an order banning reporting the fact that Quinn is already serving five years for gun-related offenses.

All of the verdicts apart from Kelly's were reached on Monday but could not be reported until now

As Mercer's guilty verdict was announced to the silent courtroom, Melanie Jones burst into tears.

Mercer, Kays and Coy will be sentenced later.

During the seven-week trial, the court heard how Mercer was a leading member of the Croxteth Crew gang, which terrorised the local community and was involved in a long-running and bloody feud with the Strand Gang, based on the neighbouring Norris Green estate.

The jury was also told he had an "intense hatred" of Strand Gang member Wayne Brady.

Mercer went to shoot Brady, 19, when he was told by Coy and Kays that he had been seen cycling near the Fir Tree Pub, which is on Croxteth Crew territory.

Dressed in a black hoodie and tracksuit, Mercer armed himself with Yates's Smith and Wesson .455 revolver and cycled to the pub where he took up position on a grass verge alongside the car park.

Holding the gun with both hands, he fired three shots at Brady's friends.

Rhys, distracted by the sound of the first bullet, turned toward the gunman and was struck in the neck by the second bullet.

Got this off snooks im glad the result was given rightly as guilty

was great news, got what they have deserved

Have a very crappy christmas you guys...

May you recieve lots of death threats attached to your christmas cards as an innocent murder of someone ONLY 11 is appalling!!


I hope they get beat up real bad in prison those <Insert word of your choice>

Edited at 18:13 Tue 16/12/08 (GMT)

Lol, sm I hope they do and It wasn't a very nice word I inserted.


Have a very happy Christmas in prison you people

A man at 26 is linked with it?
Sad.

Bring back the death penalty....or is that too good for scum like them?

Far too good Tids..

I hope the realization of whats to come has hit him hard today seeing as they lil <beep> showed no remorse all thru the trail.

22 yrs before hes even considered parole and rightly so is what i say!



My thoughts are with Rhys's parents.

X

~Paula~

i think they should build a uk version of alcatraz for murderers and perverts of all catergories and build it like the oil rigs in the north sea....try to swim ashore from there and they will know about it, keep em away from the mainland

I reckon in cases like this they should make the punishment like Saw.. lock them in a cell with their death looming and only one of them can get out.

One of them eventually gets the key.. only to realize that the key is *conveniently* the wrong one. And they all stay lying there slowly bleeding to death.

Justice at its best

A disgraceful murder. Hopefully the scummer who aimed so recklessly will make use of the time he spends behind bars to think about what he did.

A very sad indictment of our times, when a young life gets ended by "accident" I hope the guilty parties suffer for the rest of their sad lives.

My thoughts lie with Rhys's Family and friends !!


And I hope this kind of atrocity can be avoided in the future, by enforcing tougher gun laws.

My idea of a prison for people like this.

A cell with no windows or bed, a hole in the floor for toilet.
regular torture consisting of ice baths, high pressure water hoses and stoning (chucking stones at them).

3 meals per day, Potato, potato, potato.

Life in prison? make sure they hate every moment.


22 years eh? You will be lucky if he does half of that...Justice in the UK is a joke.

Edited at 20:29 Mon 22/12/08 (GMT)

I have been In a prison to look around about sometime last year as a uncle works for the police..


And I actually spoke to some of the prisoners in there for class a drugs.. The bloke was coming to the end of his sentence and within those three years he said he relises what he done and will never go back to them.. But will he?

After having a look around we desided to go to the ''Cafe'' (Of course no-one was in their).. The food looked horrible but when you go round the corner you see Mars Bars but priced at like £1:50 a bar!

Last few word that might suprise you!
Every 2 weeks you have a choise to recieve tobbaco or Money if you chose tobbaco you recieve the basic free meals.. But if you have the money you can buy clothes, trainers and more such as luxary food you could call for them..

Aparrenlty Most people Have the Tobbaco!

But its there choice...

Lol never typed so much in my life!