Dressed in a black dress and wearing a purple Liverpool Unites ribbon, she clutched a gold pendant carrying a picture of her beaming son.

Yesterday as the teenager was jailed, she simply watched him.

Holding hands with her husband, she gave a small smile and nodded to herself as he was led away for 22 years.

Mercer did not look up.

He had paled as he was labelled "a coward", who gloried in gang culture by Mr Justice Irwin.

The judge also jailed co-defendants Gary Kays, 26, of Mallard Close, Croxteth Park and Melvin Coy, 25, of Abbeyfield Drive, for seven years each for their role in assisting Mercer.

He told the three conspirators: "You are not soldiers.

"You have no discipline, no training, no honour. You do not command respect.

"You may think you do, but that is because you cannot tell the difference between respect and fear.

"You are selfish, shallow criminals, remarkable only by the danger you pose to others."

The trial judge had earlier praised the dignity of Rhys’s parents.

Mr Justice Irwin told Mercer: "Rhys Jones died at your hands.

"His death was a tragedy for him and for his family, a waste of promising young life.

"His parents’ dignity throughout this process has been deeply impressive to any of us who have seen it.

"The way they have behaved is a standing reproach to those in the dock, and particularly to you Mercer, who killed their son.

"But it is clear their composure conceals searing emotions, which we can guess at, but which those of us who have not lost a child can hardly fully understand".

On the opposite side of the public gallery Mercer’s burly dad Mr McCormick struggled to hold back tears.

The gunman’s mum Janette Mercer was not in court.

Mercer, of Good Shepherd Close, has always denied being the hooded gunman who was caught on CCTV blasting three shots across the car park of the Fir Tree pub.

The teenager insisted he had been watching a DVD of rapper 50 Cent at co-accused Dean Kelly’s home (previously Boy K).

But after more than three days of deliberations, the jury rejected his lies.

The panel of seven women and five men found Mercer unanimously guilty at 3.15pm on Monday.

Five of his co-accused were also unanimously convicted.