Det Supt Dave Kelly addresses the press outside court _320
“A lot of information was coming in thick and fast and it’s my job to make some sense of that.”
Later that evening he was appointed senior investigating officer by Patricia Gallan, assistant chief constable, and began a regime of finishing work at 2am and starting the next day at 7am.
One of the strongest, most memorable aspects of the case was Rhys’s parents’ strength of character, said Mr Kelly.
“Their life was turned upside down, the devastation was there for all to see,” he said.
“But despite that, they have acted with dignity and courage throughout.
“Out of everybody, they could have been the most demanding of me but they demonstrated patience more than anybody.
“They didn’t put me under any undue pressure because they knew from my dealings with them that we were doing everything possible.
“They knew we had to go carefully because we didn’t want to make any mistakes that would undermine the investigation.”
Det Supt Kelly’s previous successes include the jailing of Frank Smith, 58 – now serving 25 years for bringing £6m-worth of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy into the country in a lorry carrying tonnes of bananas.
In 2004 and 2005 he worked on Merseyside Police’s Operation Copybook, which won a Home Office award for dismantling an organised crime chain and seizing drugs worth a total of £166m.
Stopped 80 times in four years
SEAN MERCER had not been arrested for any serious crimes before the murder of Rhys, although he was known to the police, having been stopped 80 times in the last four years.
He has two convictions for possessing a CS canister and cannabis, but police say there was no indication the former De la Salle pupil’s offending would escalate to murder. He had been made the subject of an interim Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) in March 2007, which became a full three year order that September.
It was made after he caused “harassment, alarm or distress” to workers at Croxteth Sports Centre including threatening a security guard, and attempting to set fire to his jacket. Dean Kelly, previously known as Boy K, was subject to the same order. Mercer breached his order twice.
