Rhys's parents plan to leave Croxteth Park

Aug 27 2007 By John Fahey

Rhys Jones’s parents tonight said they blamed the parents of their son’s killer for making him capable of murder.

And in their second heart-rending appeal for help, the couple vowed to leave respectable Croxteth Park in Merseyside for a new life elsewhere.

Saying she had never before felt frightened in the neighbourhood, Mrs Jones, 41, admitted: “I don’t feel safe now up there. I am going to leave. I can’t live on there any more. I can’t go up to those shops any more.

“I’ve got to move somewhere else.”

Rhys’s father, Stephen, 44, added: “It’s a question of us not being able to go up to the shops every day past the spot where our son has died.”

The couple had lived happily in the three-bedroomed semi for almost two decades.

Now, Mrs Jones - who cradled her 11-year-old “baby” as he lay dying from a bullet that passed through his neck - believes she did not know what was really happening in the neighbourhood.

She said: “We never knew anything about guns. We’ve lived there 17 years and we’ve never had any trouble. Never been frightened about going out.

“Yes there are gangs of kids around, but there’s gangs of teenagers everywhere - especially up at the shops because that’s where they congregate.

“But I’ve never known anything about trouble like that. Maybe I live in a bubble, but I never thought they went up there with guns.”

Rhys, a besotted Everton FC fan, died on Wednesday night in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after losing a massive amount of blood.

Police arrested 10 teenagers with six bailed and four released without charge.

Detectives believe the killer is aged approximately between 13 and 15.

Mrs Jones said she was devastated that someone so young could commit such an appalling crime.

“It’s horrendous. What kind of people are they?” she said.

“What are their parents doing is what I want to know.

“They must know it’s their kid. They must know what they’re up to - or don’t they care?

“I knew where my son was. I knew where my sons were all the time. If they were going out I knew where they were, who they were with and what time they would be home.

“The parents don’t care. I blame the parents most of all. There are no boundaries any more. There’s no respect.

“If their parents had any thought about our pain and what we have lost they’d turn in their son. A sister, or aunt or son must know who it is, or suspect who it is.

“They should turn them in. Because someone needs to get a grip - someone needs to do something.”

Mr Jones added that parents had a responsibility for their children and “somewhere along the line the guy that shot my son has gone very wrong”.

The couple were joined by their eldest son Owen, 17, in front of 37,000 fans at Goodison Park on Saturday for a minute’s applause.

“The emotion that flowed out to us was incredible,” said Mr Jones.

“But I would have given anything just to have turned up at that game as normal with my two lads and to have been just faces in the crowd.

“But to walk out onto the edge of the pitch... it was just deafening and we just could not hear the Tannoy. It was just overwhelming.”

Mrs Jones said visiting the murder scene had been part of a “rollercoaster of emotions” but she drew strength from people’s support across the country.

This morning Everton players paid tribute to the football-mad youngster by laying a wreath and signed shirts and boots at the murder spot.

Praising the courage and strength of the Jones family, captain Phil Neville appealed for the killer or his family to come forward.

And fans’ favourite defender Alan Stubbs, born nearby in Kirkby, said: “It has affected everyone, it has affected the whole city.

“What’s happened is a tragic, tragic event.

“Anyone with any information to help the police, please come forward.”