A TEENAGER whose loft was allegedly used to hide the Rhys Jones murder weapon told a jury that gang members regarded his home as a “safe house”.

The 17-year-old told Liverpool Crown Court that gang members chose him to stash the gun because he had “never been in trouble with the police”.

Boy C is a key witness for the prosecution and cannot be named.

He explained yesterday why he felt he was called to an address in Croxteth by Sean Mercer, who is accused of Rhys’s murder, moments after the 11-year-old was killed to dispose of the gun, as claimed by the prosecution.

During his police interview, played to the jury, he said: “I was just scared to say ‘no’. He might have done that to that little kid so what might he do to me? He’s not going to think twice.”

The court listened to Boy C describe how Boy K, a juvenile who cannot be named, visited his home on Sunday, August 26, four days after Rhys’s murder.

In his police interview, the teenager said his co-defendant arrived to move the murder weapon from the dog kennel in his back garden, where Boy C had initially concealed it, to the loft upstairs.

Boy C said: “He [Boy K] knew my mum would be out and he said ‘I’ve come to move that’ [the gun]. I said: ‘Go on then, move it.’ I don’t want to be involved.”

The jury heard him say Boy K asked for a bag before using his mobile phone to call somebody and ask: “What do we do now?”

Boy C, in interview, continued: “He just said ‘I’m going to put it in your loft’. I said ‘No you’re not’. I don’t want anything to do with it. I’m not getting involved in all of this.

“He climbed up into the loft. I could hear some rustling. Then he came down, goes out the front door and doesn’t say anything else.”

The court heard with the gun stashed in his loft, Boy C left the UK for a family holiday in Florida on Friday, September 21, last year.

Within two days of arriving, he found out police had raided his home, sparking a flurry of transatlantic calls and texts.

He said: “The day later, they found the guns in the house. He [Mercer] phoned me and said ‘your door’s been kicked in’.”

When Boy C touched down at Manchester airport, he was arrested by detectives.

The case continues.