Rhys Jones trial: DNA on bike helped find accused
Oct 11 2008 Liverpool Daily Post
CCTV from behind the Fir Tree Pub of Rhys Jones's killer, moments before he struck _320
DNA belonging to the teenager accused of murdering Rhys Jones was found on the bike used to flee the scene, a court heard yesterday.
And 18-year-old Sean Mercer admitted the killing just minutes after the schoolboy was shot, Liverpool Crown Court was told.
During day two of the trial of 18-year-old Mercer and several co-accused, it was claimed he had blasted three shots across the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth Park on August 22 last year.
One left the 11-year-old bleeding to death while his desperate mother, Melanie, cradled him.
Neil Flewitt QC, for the prosecution, said a 16-year-old defendant known as Boy M “told the police that his grandmother answered the door to Sean Mercer, who said that he had just shot someone and that a kid had gone down”.
The jury also heard a bike belonging to Mercer was found abandoned the day after the murder.
The mountain bike, allegedly used by the gunman who shot Rhys Jones, was handed to police after a Merseyside father saw appeals on TV and the press.
The satin silver Specialised Hard Rock bike was dumped in Kirkby in the hours after the murder as the gunman tried to avoid justice, the court heard.
When he was first arrested, Mercer, through his legal representative, gave detectives a prepared statement.
In that statement, Mercer said: “I own a mountain bike, it is black, cream and orange. The police have taken possession of it. I do not ride any others and have no access to mountain bikes.”
Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “This was untrue. The police have recovered the bicycle used by the gunman. It is a silver bicycle and it is linked directly to Sean Mercer.
“In April 2007, Sean Mercer took possession of a satin silver Specialised Hard Rock mountain bike with a 19in frame.”
When police found this out, they bought their own identical bike, which an expert confirmed was highly likely to be the type of bike being ridden by the gunman caught on CCTV at the Fir Tree.
With that, the police released a photograph of the bike to the media – producing an almost immediate result.
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