Rhys Jones trial: U-12s coach tells of Rhys's final moments

Oct 15 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

MELANIE JONES began to cry as a statement was read out from Rhys’s football coach Steve Geoghegan.

The under-12s manager relived how, moments before the schoolboy’s death, he had played a final penalty shoot-out with his “star player”.

The 11-year-old had gone in goal, as Mr Geoghegan took the final penalty of the session.

He said: “Rhys was in very high spirits and we all had a good laugh together.”

He told how Rhys began to walk home along Langley Close.

“I shouted to Rhys, 'How are you getting home?'

“I tried to tell him I would give him a lift, but he said 'No it's all right, I will walk'.”

The football coach, who had laid on extra training for the upcoming season, described how he got in his car as Rhys headed across the Fir Tree pub car park.

“I remember hearing noises outside the car.

“I then saw Rhys fall to the ground of the car park. I just thought he had fallen over.

“I stopped my car and walked over to Rhys. Before I reached Rhys, a female employee of the pub was already with him. I immediately realised that Rhys was in a very bad condition.”

He added: “I was so shocked and upset that I couldn't do anything but call the police straight away. I called Tony Edge, our coach, and told him Rhys had been shot and I thought he had been killed. I immediately told him to call Rhys’s parents.”