Rhys's mum: I blame the killer’s parents

Aug 28 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

THE heartbroken mother of Rhys Jones last night made a direct appeal to her son’s killer to hand himself in.

Melanie Jones, 41, also blamed the killer’s parents for the loss of her son because they had not brought up their child in the right way.

She also revealed her family plans to move away from their Croxteth Park home because they no longer feel safe in the area following the apparently motiveless murder of 11-year- old Rhys last Wednesday night.

Mrs Jones made the emotional plea as Merseyside detectives revealed all those arrested on suspicion of the killing had been released from police custody.

One boy, aged 15, and a man, aged 19, as well as a 15-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman, were released without charge.

A 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man were released on bail pending further inquiries.

Mrs Jones, who works at Tesco, in Deysbrook Lane, said with no one in police custody, her family no longer felt safe living in Croxteth Park and had no choice but to move home.

Wiping tears from her eyes, she directly addressed the teenage gunman’s parents and said they must stop him before he strikes again.

She said: “You can’t do something like this and behave normally.

“You will know if your son is not behaving normally . . . or maybe has told someone.

“Do the right thing. Please come forward. I know it will be hard but my son is dead and we need to bring this to an end.

“It’s not going to bring Rhys back but we want this person caught because I really believe that he will do it again.” Mrs Jones said she could not begin to understand how the killer was able to live with himself, but said at least if he gave himself up the family would be able to find some peace.

Addressing the killer, she added: “It’s going to be on your conscience for the rest of your life.

“Turn yourself in because they are going to find you anyway.”

Everton FC-mad Rhys was shot in the back of the neck as he walked home from football practice at 7.30pm last Wednesday, close to the Fir Tree Pub, in Croxteth Park.

Mrs Jones said: ““We are determined to go out and to keep Rhys in the media and in people’s minds, but we have got an older son too (Owen, 17) and we have got to be strong for him.

“We can’t fall apart. We have got to take each hour as it comes and do the best we can.

“Owen is very quiet but he is devastated.

“He can’t even say the words.

“It’s going to take him a long time to get over it . . . if he ever gets over it.

“I don’t think he will. I don’t think any of us ever will.”

Mrs Jones said that, while she realised people were frightened to come forward and give evidence at the moment, she said they must be brave and not live in fear of local gangs.

She said: “I would be frightened but witnesses need to come forward.

“I just want to ask them to be brave.”

Rhys’s father, Stephen Jones, 44, who works in Southport’s Tesco, and his wife, also spoke lovingly about just how “football mad” their son was.

They said the Broad Square Primary School pupil was so into the sport that, instead of wearing normal clothes, he would only ever put on his football kit or tracksuits.

Mr Jones said: “Every opportunity he got, it would be ‘Let’s go and have a game of football’.”

Mrs Jones said she had never before felt afraid in the Croxteth Park estate where they live in a three-bedroomed house in Crompton Drive, and had certainly never thought about the danger of guns in the area.

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

“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. We have got another son.”

The couple said they were stunned when detectives told them Rhys’s killer was aged between 13 and 15, and said they could not believe that somebody so young could get access to a gun and bullets.

Mrs Jones said: “It’s horrendous.

“What kind of people are they?

“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 blame the parents most of all. There are no boundaries any more.”

carolineinnes