A man who was the intended target for a killer gang who stormed a home and shot dead an innocent young mum on her sofa today said he "has to live with the guilt every day."
Gary Campbell was the person being hunted when callous thugs smashed their way inside a Walton home 16 years ago, but instead shot his girlfriend Lucy Hargreaves as she lay on the living room sofa, and then set her on fire.
The brutal murder still remains unsolved and is the reason why Kevin Parle remains arguably Merseyside Police's most wanted fugitive.
Read more: Suspect killer on most wanted list seen in 'coffee shop and bar'
Mr Campbell has now given his first full interview about what happened on the day the 22-year-old was killed, and how said he desperately tried to save her.
Now aged 44, the dad-of-three told how he entered the burning property on Lambourne Road and carried Lucy's lifeless body out of the house.
And he also insisted he was not in the stolen car that crashed into four year-old Kevin Downes in Huyton in August 1993, 12 years before the murder of Ms Hargreaves.
That was the motive for the execution in 2005, with a gang-of-three looking for Mr Campbell, believing he was in the car that reversed out of control around the corner near Pennard Avenue and careered into Kevin, killing him.
But he insists he was not in the vehicle at the time, but was instead on the pavement, a short distance away.
Mr Campbell said he had driven the car moments earlier, but was not involved in the accident, which later led to driver Andrew Ellis, just 14 at the time, getting a 12 month sentence, which caused a huge outcry on Merseyside at the time.
Speaking exclusively to the ECHO, on the day Lucy would have turned 38 last Wednesday, he said: "On the night Lucy was killed, she stayed downstairs, my daughter was with me.
"I think she was in the cot, so I went asleep.
"And then I just heard banging on the door, 'police, police, police', and then 'bang bang.'
"I heard Lucy, then I remember the flames coming up the stairs, then I grabbed my daughter, and I smashed the window and jumped out, giving the baby to a neighbour.
"I went round the front, didn't know what to do, and tried to go back in and get Lucy.
"I couldn't handle the flames, I was melting.
"I tried to go through the front door but I couldn't so I smashed the glass and went through the window and grabbed her off the couch.
"I couldn't get in the front door because of the flames, I was black and I was burning.
"I couldn't really see, so had to get through the front window, smashed it through, and feel with my hands....I had to pick her up, and get her out.
"I had to get out the window and I put her on the floor outside.
"It's hard to talk about now, I feel like crying - it was horrific.
"Our other two children were with their grandparents, imagine if they'd have been there as well.
"I knew straight away Lucy was dead."
Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley went on trial for her murder at Liverpool Crown Court in 2007, but were acquitted midway through the case after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed.
It was heard how the motive for the murder was the 12-year grudge held by the defendants towards Mr Campbell following the death of Mr Downes' young brother in the car tragedy.
Downes and Bradley had denied the execution.
Parle remains on the run, suspected to be hiding abroad, in connection with Lucy's still unsolved murder and also the unsolved murder of 16-year-old Liam Kelly, who was shot dead in Dingle, a year earlier in 2004.
Mr Campbell said: "I'd been to jail for two and a half years for a burglary I didn't do - I was set up.
"I was getting threats in jail, there was a contract on my head, five lads came into the cell and jumped all over my head.
"I was getting told there was a hit on my head, but I never thought nothing of it.
"They must have found out where I lived when I got out of jail.
"I got out February and this happened six months later...they must have been setting me off and following me.
"I used to go to my mum's and walk back home - they must have followed me.
"But I want people to know, there's nothing on my record, no death by dangerous driving, it's in black and white."
Recalling the events that led to the death of Kevin Downes, Mr Campbell said: "I lived in Huyton.
"I had a go of the car, then another lad did, and then Ellis had a go.
I had a go round the block and got out, then Ellis jumped in, had a go, reversed the car and hit the child.
"But I was not in the car whatsoever, I was on the corner of the street.
"I was by the car, but was not in the car.
"I knew something had happened as he got out the car and ran away.
"Because I've stayed in Liverpool, and the other two have got off, I've been blamed.
"But I'm not hiding from anybody, I've not done anything wrong."
On August 3, 2005, three masked men burst into the home and killed Lucy with three shots discharged at close-range using a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.
Prosecutors and police believe the "cold-blooded" killers may have initially thought they were murdering Mr Campbell, but then carried on regardless when they soon saw they had attacked his girlfriend, or the hit was a "form of retribution."
Moments later, the duvet was set on fire and several downstairs rooms were torched before the gang fled and drove off in a stolen Lexus, said to have been stolen from Allerton.
Parle remains high on the wanted list for Merseyside Police and the National Crime Agency, and despite past underworld rumours on Merseyside he was killed and "dumped out at sea", detectives and others believe he is alive.
Intelligence in recent years and alleged sightings have suggested Parle is abroad and, at different times, may have been in Spain, or parts of Asia, including Dubai.
Private investigator, ex-Channel 4 Hunted presenter, and former Metropolitan Police officer Peter Bleksley has spent close to two years hunting for Parle.
He believes the 6ft 6ins fugitive is being harboured by a well-known global criminal network, abroad, many of them with Liverpool links.
Mr Campbell this week told how he regularly visits his ex-girlfriend's grave, recalling how he used to sleep at her resting place, digging up the mud with his hands.
He told the ECHO: "I come to pay my respects, it's hard, but I have to do it.
"I should be in there - they came to kill me.
"I've got to live with the guilt of what they did to her, it breaks my heart, they should have got me, I would have rather they got me than got her.
"If they would have looked for me in the house I would have come downstairs, if they came upstairs they would have got me.
"I would rather they had done that.
"We were together about seven years, she was just a good girl, everyone was nice with her.
"I was only young, we had three kids, and we were trying our best to look after them.
"We had a good relationship, I loved her.
"We were ok at the time, it was good, we looked after the kids, that was our thing.
"I loved Lucy with a passion and I had to live with this when she died and to say this day, the guilt...I just feel terrible.
"The last 15 years have been terrible, every day she's on my mind, I can't get Lucy out my head.
"With other relationships it's hard, so I'd rather just be on my own.
"I have to live with this in my head - it's hard.
"At the grave, I try and say some words to her, sit down, have a little cry, I don't know what to say to her, I get stuck...
"She would have been a really good mum to the kids."
Anyone with information on the death of Lucy Hargreaves or the whereabouts of Kevin Parle is asked to contact @MerPolCC, 101 or @CrimestoppersUK or by ringing 0800 555 111.
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