Who is Boy M? Teen whose bedroom was used by Rhys Jones killer Sean Mercer
THE tragic murder of Rhys Jones at that hands of a gang member shocked Britain in 2007.
One of the key players was a teenager, named in court simply as Boy M , who helped killer Sean Mercer, 17, tried to cover up his crime. This is his background...
Who is Boy M?
The identity of the teenager referred to as "Boy M" in court during the Rhys Jones murder trial has never been revealed.
In the ITV drama Little Boy Blue, he's been given the pseudonym Jordan "Latch" Olssen (played by Nathan Clark Smith).
At the time of the murder, Boy M was just 16 years old and described as emotionally vulnerable.
His bedroom was used by the gang led by killer Sean Mercer to cover up Rhys’ murder.
Boy M also knew about the revolver that was used in the shooting of Rhys being taken to another boy’s house and hidden.
He suffers from ADHD and, when charged, had not left his home for two years, according to The Guardian.
He followed the Croxteth Crew gang members “like a little lost sheep” after befriending them four years before.
A year before Rhys Jones was killed, Boy M was beaten up when he told police the names of criminals who stole a van and then shot the owner when he came to find it.
A video clip showed him abusing his mother for speaking to the police, saying she was lucky he did not give her a “crack”.
Boy M escaped a prison sentence but was given a two-year supervision order with a four-month, 7pm to 7am curfew for assisting an offender.
Who was Rhys Jones?
Rhys Jones was an 11-year-old schoolboy from Liverpool.
The son of parents Stephen, from Liverpool, and Melanie Jones, from Wrexham, he was tragically killed just one month before his twelfth birthday.
Rhys had just left Broad Square Primary School on the city’s Norris Green housing estate, and was due to start at Fazakerley High School in September 2007.
People who knew him, such as his teachers and neighbours, said he was a friendly and popular boy.
He was also a massive football fan, supporting Everton FC, where he, his brother and his dad had season tickets.
Who is Rhys's killer Sean Mercer?
Everton fan Rhys had been on his way home from football practice when he was caught in the deadly gangland crossfire in the Liverpool suburb of Croxteth.
Mercer was a gun-obsessed 16-year-old and a leading member of the Croxteth Young Guns gang when he fatally shot Rhys with a stray bullet from a battered World War One revolver.
None of his intended targets was hit.
During his trial, Liverpool Crown Court heard that Mercer’s ‘Crocky Crew’ were involved in a 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.
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Two months before he shot Rhys, Mercer had been seen brandishing a gun while riding on the back of a motorcycle in a rival gang’s territory.
And on the day of the fatal shooting he was under a three-year Asbo for terrorising security guards at a sports centre.
When told that three Strand Gang members had been seen on Crocky Crew territory, Mercer raced there on a BMX, armed with the Smith & Wesson .455 revolver.
He fired three shots - the second of which hit Rhys in the back.
The youngster died at the scene, in the arms of his mother Melanie who rushed to the scene when she heard the news.
Mercer fled, hiding at a friend’s and calling on gang members to help him escape capture.
He was driven to a lock-up garage where the clothes he had been wearing were burned and his body washed with petrol to remove any traces of gunshot residue. He gave the pistol to a friend to hide.
Mercer was arrested within days but denied murder, claiming he had been at a friend’s watching a DVD when Rhys was killed.
It took eight months for Mercer to be charged. When his case came to court, in December 2008, the jury convicted him unanimously.
A string of his fellow gang members were also jailed for trying to protect Mercer.
His mum Janette, a £50-a-night prostitute, was jailed for three years for lying to police investigating her son.
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