'Teenager admitted killing Rhys'

9:42am Saturday 11th October 2008

The teenager accused of murdering Rhys Jones admitted to the killing just minutes after the schoolboy was shot, a court has heard.

Sean Mercer, 18, blasted three shots across the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth Park on 22 August last year, it was claimed.

One left the 11-year-old bleeding to death while his desperate mother cradled him.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Mercer's DNA was found on the bike used to flee the scene and that he admitted the killing when he arrived at another defendant's house.

Neil Flewitt QC, for the prosecution, said a 16-year-old defendant known as Boy M "told the police that his grandmother answered the door to Sean Mercer, who said that he had just shot someone and that a kid had gone down".

The jury also heard that a bike belonging to Mercer was found abandoned the day after the murder. A cyclist, Leslie Shimmin, discovered it less than 250 metres from an industrial unit used by co-accused Melvin Coy, 25, of Croxteth, who denies assisting an offender.

It was not until six months later, when reading a local paper and watching the television news, that Mr Shimmin realised the bike he found and took home to keep was what the police were searching for.

Mr Flewitt told the seven women and five men of the jury: "It will, perhaps, come as no surprise to you to learn that the serial number of the silver Specialized Hardrock mountain bike found by Mr Shimmin in Kirkby is the same as the serial number of the Specialized Hardrock mountain bike supplied to Sean Mercer in April 2007."

The prosecution claim the killing was part of a gang war between the defendants' Croxteth Crew and nearby Strand Gang from Norris Green. It is claimed the bullets were meant for Strand Gang members Kevin Davies, 19, a boy who cannot be named and Wayne Brady, 20, who was talking to his ex-girlfriend when the shots rang out.

All the accused deny the charges against them. The case continues.

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