Good emerges from evil act

Sep 19 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

IT IS too easy to fall into despair when confronted by some of the terrible events we have to report. However, it is also important to recognise that good can sometimes come out of tragedy.

Such is the case with 11-year-old Rhys Jones, whose murder in Croxteth Park four weeks ago shocked not only the city but the whole country.

Since then, there have been many moving demonstrations of the depth of feeling the murder of this promising youngster has provoked.

Yesterday, the Daily Post reported how Rhys’s parents opened a new play area dedicated to his memory at his former school in Norris Green. Now we can report another positive development – the launch of a memorial fund to help find the £1.2m-plus needed to build a Community Centre, named in his honour, near his home.

Football, the favourite sport of the young Everton fan, will feature prominently, with all-weather pitches forming an integral part of the plan, which aims to bring people of all ages together for sporting and social activities.

Politicians have vowed to do all they can to ensure the centre becomes a reality, to provide a much-needed facility for the community and youth of the area.

Croxteth Park is the second-largest private estate in Europe, with about 3,500 homes and more than 7,000 residents, but it has very few community facilities.

As Rhys’s parents, Melanie and Stephen, say, a new community centre would be "the best tribute to our son we could possibly think of," and urged people everywhere to support the project.

It is gestures such as these, which produce real tangible benefits to the community, that are the best answer to the criminal minority who try to terrorise and intimidate all the good people in areas such as Croxteth Park, and who took the life of Rhys Jones.

It is also further evidence of the great courage and dignity shown by Mr and Mrs Jones, since their son was so cruelly taken from them.