“He just asked how he was and if he had told the police anything about himself, about Sean.
“I said I hadn’t had much contact and didn’t know what had gone on.”
He added: “He asked me if the witness had handed him in and I said I didn’t know.
“He said he thought he would have handed him in by now.
“He was surprised the witness hadn’t opened his mouth.”
Speaking before the seven women and five men of the jury, he added: “Just before he left he was making sure and he said ’He definitely hasn’t handed me in?’
“And he said ’It’s nice that’.
“He was making sure he hadn’t.”
Speaking from behind a curtain, the witness said he later saw Mercer again outside the school and Mercer shouted to him “Don’t get me nicked” before pointing into the school.
Rhys was shot dead on August 22 last year.
He was crossing the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth when Mercer blasted three shots at opposition gang members, it is claimed.
One bullet hit the football mad youngster and he was pronounced dead later in hospital.
