BOY M, 16, - THE COVER-UP

The home of reclusive Boy M was where the defendants converged as the cover up began.

M dumped Mercer’s hat and gloves in his bin, ordered two lads who cannot be named to shift his bike and also knew about the murder weapon being taken to another boy’s house.

When he was was charged over Rhys’s death, Boy M had not left his house for two years.

The skinny youngster made friends with the Croxteth Crew when he was only 11.

He was known to tag along "like a little lost sheep".

"I told him to stay away from them but he didn’t take any notice," his mother said.

In 2006 he was beaten up for giving police names of thugs who stole a man’s van then shot him in the face when he came looking for it.

The experience terrified Boy M, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A video clip illustrating his desire to protect his friends shocked many when it was played in court.

In it he attacks his mother for speaking to the police, calling her a "soft c***", a "dozy t***", a" f****** dyke". He also said she was lucky he did not give her a "crack".

NATHAN QUINN, 18, THE THUG

Quinn was with James Yates when the latter got a phone call asking him to go to Boy M’s house.

Quinn, who is already serving five years for firearms offences, helped dump the murder weapon and Mercer’s clothes in Kirkby.

The thick-set thug was locked up in April with Croxteth Crew mate Kieran Farrell, 16, for conspiring to possess a gun, ammunition and a silencer.

In November 2007, just three months after helping conceal the truth behind Rhys’s murder, Quinn and Farrell took a taxi to get a gun - a high-powered 9mm Browning pistol - from Phillip Worsley, 28, at his home in Haydock, Merseyside.

Police were tailing Worsley and minutes after Quinn, who has convictions for criminal damage and dangerous driving, arrived with Farrell, officers raided the property.

Inside they found a sniper’s rifle, £2,000 in a plastic bag and the pistol fitted with a silencer, which was covered in Quinn’s fingerprints.

Quinn, who is listed as his mother Marie Thompson’s primary carer in her fight against stomach cancer, was hit in a drive-by shooting when he was just 14.

Pellets remain in his back, buttock and leg and his attacker was never caught.

He showed no remorse during the murder trial and was repeatedly seen gesturing at and "staring out" the public and detectives who brought him to justice.