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THE mother of a teenager accused of being involved in the Rhys Jones shooting has given evidence against her own son.

The woman, whose 16-year-old son stands accused of assisting an offender, was visibly shaking as she took to the stand.

But, despite giving a clear statement to police in the days following the Croxteth Park shooting, she was yesterday unable to give a precise account of key events from August 22 last year.

During more than an hour of questioning, the dark-haired woman, named as Miss K, who admitted having a drink problem, repeatedly changed her version of events.

Sitting just a few feet away from Rhys’s parents, Melanie and Stephen, she told Liverpool Crown Court she was on holiday in North Wales when her son, named only as Boy K, was arrested just three days after the murder. She said officers visited her while she was away and she gave a statement describing how alleged killer Sean Mercer had called at her Croxteth house, but left with her son minutes before the fatal shooting.

But under cross-examination yesterday, she claimed she was unable to give a precise time when the pair had left.

She also agreed with Mercer’s defence team that it could have been after the time of the murder.

In her original account, the defendant’s mother said alleged Croxteth Crew gang member Mercer had arrived while Emmerdale, which aired from 7pm to 7.25pm, was on the television.

She said he went straight upstairs, where he was joined by her son, who had been eating his tea.

She said: “After a while, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.