Fifteen years ago today 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot while walking home from football practice in a killing that shook the nation.
Young Rhys had been caught in the crossfire between two criminal gangs as he left the Croxteth Fir Tree pub car park in Liverpool on August 22, 2007.
Sean Mercer, a member of the so-called Croxteth Crew, had intended to shoot rival Wayne Brady, who was a member of the Norris Green Strand Gang.
Mercer, 16, fired three shots, but the only person he hit was innocent Rhys, who's mother rushed to cradle him as he laid dying in her arms following the fatal shooting.
While Rhys' family and friends grieved their loss, Mercer and his fellow gang members immediately began a cover up of the crime, and it would take months before police were able to catch the criminals.
Here's how they finally caught them and where they are now.
How was Rhys Jones' killer caught?
At least 12 people had witnessed Rhys Jones being shot, but a wall of silence surrounded his killing.
A culture of intimidation left people with information too scared to speak to the police and it would take months before Rhys' killer and his accomplices were caught.
The police were desperate to find the killer. They questioned thousands of motorists and residents, asked witnesses to come forward, and continued to release information about the killing to keep the investigation in the spotlight.
At the same time, Rhys' family and friends made public appeals for any information and please for information were also broadcast over the loudspeaker systems at Everton and Liverpool football matches.
Some people in the community were aware of who Rhys' killer was and a dedicated police hotline was flooded with the names Sean Mercer, and James Yates, who provided the gun.
Days after Rhys' death, police had even arrested Mercer and Yates, but were forced to release them due to a lack of evidence.
But as the police searched the houses of the Croxteth Crew members they left bugs behind, and one listening device was placed in the home of Yates.
From this, police were able to listen to a conversation in which James discussed details about the gangs cover up, and this ultimately gave them a major new lead.
The conversation led them to Boy X, the anonymous witness who played a key role in catching Rhys' killer and his accomplices.
Just 20 minutes after shooting Rhys, Mercer convinced Boy X, a 17-year-old who had no criminal record, to take the gun and hide it.
The police raided Boy X's home and finally found the gun that had been used to kill Rhys.
They pleaded for Boy X to help the investigation and initially, he had told police that he wasn't sure who had given him the gun.
But eventually he garnered the courage to change his statement and confirm that Mercer had given him the deadly weapon.
Boy X was offered immunity and new identity by police under a witness protection scheme and his real name has never been revealed.
He also gave police another key bit of information, a description of the bike that Mercer was riding.
The bike had been dumped in Kirkby and was found by a member of the public, police were able to get DNA evidence from it that linked it to Sean Mercer.
The police now had the bicycle that Sean Mercer had been riding during the killing, the murder weapon used to kill Rhys, audio evidence from James Yates' home, CCTV footage of the killing, and a vital testimony from Boy X — which game them enough to charge Mercer and his accomplices.
What happened to Rhys Jones' killer and the Croxteth Crew?
A total of 11 people, including Sean Mercer's mother, were jailed for playing a part in the murder of Rhys Jones.
Their combined sentences totalled 61 years and six months.
All of the offenders apart from Sean Mercer have since been released from their original sentences, but many have gone on to reoffend and spend more time behind bars.
Sean Mercer was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison.
He is currently incarcerated at Frankland Prison in Durham and isn't set to be released until at least 2030, when he will be 40 years old.
In 2009 Mercer's mother, Janette Mercer, was sentenced to three years in prison for perverting the course of justice after she lied to the police when they asked her about the bikes that Sean owned.
While behind bars she was legally evicted from her home in Croxteth, but she has since been released from prison.
James Yates was handed a seven-year sentence for supplying the gun that was used to shoot Rhys, as well as assisting in the cover up of the killing.
Yates had his sentence increased to 12 years after his case was referred to the Court of Appeal, who agreed that the sentence was inadequate.
Yates' parents were also sentenced for perverting the course of justice as they destroyed potential evidence and hid information from the police.
His mother, Marie, was handed an 18 month prison sentence in 2009 and his dad, Francis, was given four and a half years.
In 2014, James Yates was released after serving less than half of his sentence.
But two years later he was arrested again after being accused of drug offences in Scotland and returned to prison for breaching his licence.
However, in March 2017 Yates and fellow Croxteth Crew member Dean Kelly were cleared of running a drug ring and in 2018 Yates was released after convincing officials he was no longer a threat to society.
But in 2019 he was back behind bars for breaching his licence once again.
In 2020 he was freed again and because his original 12-year sentence has expired, he is no longer banned from returning to Croxteth.
Nathan Quinn, an 18-year-old who helped to conceal the murder weapon, was sentenced to two years for assisting an offender.
Quinn was already serving a five-year sentence over a gun crime at the time of his sentencing and was released from prison in 2011.
Gary Kays, 26, was found guilty of assisting an offender after he urged Mercer to confront the rival gang member in a phone call.
He was handed a seven-year sentence in 2008 but was released in licence in 2011.
However, he was arrested again in 2013 and in 2014 was jailed for three years and five months after being found guilty of conspiring to supply Class A drugs.
Melvin Coy, 32, was also handed a seven-year sentence.
He had told Mercer about the rival gang member bring in Croxteth and also drove the killer to Kirkby after the fatal shooting, where they doused him in petrol to get rid of gunshot residue.
He was also released on licence in 2011, after serving less than half of his sentence.
In 2014 he was arrested and accused of handling a stolen car that the police had been tracking he was released on bail but was later jailed for 12 months for handling stolen goods.
Dean Kelly provided Mercer with a fake alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the killing and was also accused of hiding the murder weapon.
The then 17-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison in 2009, he was also released in 2011 but was another reoffender and found himself back behind bars the following year.
He admitted to aggravated vehicle taking and was jailed for ten months.
In 2019 he was banned from East Lothian in Scotland after detectives accused him of being linked to "acts of violence and intimidation, including the use of weapons".
