Two masked ‘assassins’ were first jailed as teenagers after one of them cycled up to a police officer with a loaded gun in his pocket.
Rueben Murphy's own lawyer said he would have to be "an extremely stupid villain" to approach a policeman while carrying a weapon. But a judge said that was exactly what he did - leading to the arrest of the then 19-year-old and his partner in crime, James Freeman, 17, back in 2015.
A little over six years later, the two thugs carried out separate shootings in the space of just six weeks. Bungling Freeman, 24, armed himself with a loaded pistol and hunted down a rival crook at the Old Bank Pub in Page Moss, only to be disarmed by his victim and shot twice in the chest with his own gun.
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Murphy, 26, then gunned down Patrick Boyle in Huyton, after targeting the dad-of-two in a "public execution" on an electric bike. But the dim-witted shooter fled to his own house - where he left gloves covered in gunshot residue on top of a kitchen cupboard for police to find.
There is no information to suggest the pub attack or Mr Boyle's murder are in any way connected - except for the fact they were committed by two close friends.
Following Murphy's guilty conviction for murder last week, the ECHO can now detail his and Freeman's links to lethal weapons, dating back to their teens. And we can reveal how their brazen thuggery has been matched only by their extreme stupidity.
On the afternoon of April 29, 2015, covert police watched Murphy and Freeman cycling around in Huyton. Murphy, who was wearing a distinctive grey North Face jacket and had covered his face with a scarf so he couldn't be recognised, boldly approached an undercover officer, who was sitting in a car near the teen's home, in Barkbeth Road.
Murphy asked the officer "are you following me?" and when questioned what he meant, replied "you're a bizzy". He and Freeman cycled away, but just 20 minutes later, police raided Murphy's house.
There in his kitchen they found the jacket he had been wearing, with a loaded gun in its pocket. A magazine attached to the 8mm Bruni semi-automatic pistol had nine live rounds inside, with a tenth inside the gun's chamber.
Murphy was arrested at the scene, while Freeman, who tried to run from the house, was caught nearby. Murphy told police he bought the gun for £50 and claimed it was an imitation firearm, only to later accept it was a modified "rebore", which had been "drilled out".
Murphy stood trial in January 2016. He admitted possessing the gun and ammunition, but denied the more serious offences of possessing them with intent to endanger life.
Prosecutors alleged he had the gun "ready to be fired at the squeeze of a trigger". Philip Astbury told a jury the gun was "good to go", adding: "It couldn't, you may think, have been more ready to be used on the streets of this city."
Murphy chose not to give evidence in that trial. His barrister, Geoffrey Lowe, suggested no inference or conclusion could be drawn as to why he had the gun and argued the jury couldn't be sure he had an intent to endanger life.
Mr Lowe also questioned the logic of any suggestion his client may have had the gun in his pocket when he approached the policeman - who did not see any weapon. He said: "He must be an extremely stupid villain to go up to somebody who is a police officer with a weapon in his pocket. For all he knew the officer might do something."
Jurors cleared Murphy of the more serious charges, prompting him to jump up and down in the dock. He shouted "that's all I need to hear," while family members screamed "yes" in the public gallery.
However, when he locked him up for five years, Judge Andrew Hatton said he was sure Murphy had the gun on him when on the bike. He said: "You have one previous conviction for possessing a bladed article, which shows you're prepared to go out on the streets of Merseyside with a weapon.
"The jury were not satisfied that you had an intention to endanger life. I will of course be wholly faithful to that verdict.
"But the evidence reveals in my judgement that you were cycling around the streets of Liverpool with a loaded gun in your pocket. Having realised you were being followed by the police - I suspect that may not have been the first time as you seem to know the identity of the police officers - you went to your home, put your jacket on a worktop, and when police arrived a few minutes later, the gun was still in the pocket."
Forensic scientists discovered Freeman's DNA on the Italian-made firearm when they examined the weapon. He skipped bail and fled the country, leading to his mum being charged with assisting an offender.
Freeman, of Pennard Avenue, Huyton, would later claim the reason he headed to Spain was because he "panicked". The fugitive was re-arrested on March 7, 2016, after flying back to John Lennon Airport, and admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition.
Frances Hertzog, defending Freeman, said he was from a "law abiding family" and regretted the offences, at a sentencing hearing that April. She said: "He accepts he was shown the gun, and he accepts he looked at it and handled it. He had no intention of doing anything with the gun and it was not to be used by him."
Ms Hertzog explained Freeman had been staying and working with a relative in Spain. She said: "He spent the whole time looking over his shoulder, and he knew he could not stay forever. He then came back to face what he had to face."
The court heard the gun had not been linked to any crimes in the UK. But Judge Hatton said: "It was a working firearm capable of causing death."
Freeman was sentenced to three years and five months in a young offenders institution. At the age of 21, he was then caught by police with a lock knife in Hillside Road, Huyton, in August 2019.
However, Freeman had not been convicted of anything anywhere near as serious as what happened on May 17 last year, when - for reasons still unknown - he targeted fellow crook Alan Roberts at the Old Bank Pub. Roberts is a convicted robber and the older brother of killer gun thug Michael Roberts - jailed in 2019 for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old James Meadows, said to be a "good friend" of Murphy.
CCTV footage showed Freeman approaching the pub in Princess Road on an electric bike, with his hood up and wearing a mask and gloves, at around 8.20pm. His botched attack then unfolded, when quick-thinking Roberts, 30, from Huyton but now of Heyes Street, Everton, darted into the pub and hid behind the door.
As Freeman came in after him Roberts pounced and the two men wrestled over the weapon in a doorway, when it went off, with two bullet fragments striking Roberts in the groin. But Roberts took control of the firearm, as he and other drinkers kicked and stamped on Freeman.
With the gunman now lying defenceless on the floor, Roberts racked the gun to eject a misfired cartridge. The CCTV showed he then turned and shot his foe twice in the chest at "point blank range".
After turning the tables on Freeman last spring, Roberts fled with the gun on Freeman's electric bike. He was arrested later that evening, after going to a hospital for treatment. The gun was never found.
Freeman admitted wounding with intent and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life ahead of a trial earlier this year, when Roberts was convicted of the same charges. A jury cleared Roberts of the more serious charge of attempted murder, but rejected his claims he acted in self-defence against an "assassin".
During that trial, David McLachlan, QC, prosecuting, explained Freeman stumbled away from the pub - still being kicked at by a local. He made it to a house in Barkbeth Road, where a friend called him an ambulance.
Police arrived and took bodycam footage that showed Freeman with two bullet holes in his chest and blood pouring from his mouth. He also had a swollen and cut left eye, from where he took a "good kicking" from Roberts and the unnamed drinkers.
The gunman was taken to Aintree hospital, where a CT scan revealed two bullets embedded in his chest that surgeons decided were too dangerous to remove. It was his reward for bringing deadly violence to a packed pub on the day lockdown ended.
Mr McLachlan told the jury: "The bullets were, and you will in fact hear are still inside him, to this day. One was lodged in his lung and another lodged near to his heart."
When it came to his sentencing, Freeman blamed his actions on PTSD - from being stabbed as a teenager - and taking a cocktail of prescription medicine on the day of the shooting. But a judge rejected the claims he made to a psychiatrist, when he said: "I can't make any sense of it. I had no intention of harming anyone. They jumped on me."
High Court judge Mr Justice Martin Spencer also rubbished the "bogus alibi" that Freeman originally put forward as his defence. He jailed him for 14 and a half years, with an extended four years on licence, as a "dangerous" offender.
This means he must spent almost 10 years behind bars before he can even apply for parole. He will only be released at that stage if he is no longer considered to be a risk to the public.
Murphy is yet to find out how long he must serve in jail for the murder of Mr Boyle. But the starting point for the minimum term for a murder involving firearms is 30 years, before a judge takes into account aggravating and mitigating features of a case.
Murphy carried out that killing on July 1 last year with the help of his best friend Ben Doyle, 24, who was also found guilty of murder. Self-confessed drug dealer Murphy claimed he was "off me head on ket" in a back garden near Doyle's house in Lyme Grove at the time of the shooting.
He denied knowing or shooting the 26-year-old victim, while Doyle claimed the shooter was a man he refused to name, because he wasn't a "snitch". However, overwhelming evidence pointed the finger at both men.
They acquired a Sur-Ron electric bike and a gun that afternoon, following an argument between Murphy and an associate of Mr Boyle. Doyle left his street on the bike, now partially disguised with black bin bags, before Murphy took it to Newway, off Lordens Road, and shot their victim twice in the chest just before 6pm.
After the attack, CCTV showed Murphy speed over on his bike to Barkbeth Road. There, in the area of his home, the killer disappeared off camera for around eight minutes. When he re-emerged, he was no longer wearing a pair of black gloves and the bike was no longer disguised. The gunman then headed back to Lyme Grove - greeting Doyle on his arrival.
Police searched Murphy's home on July 6, when they found a pair of gloves on top of a kitchen cupboard. The left glove revealed gunshot residue (GSR), which matched GSR inside two cartridge cases found at the scene of the shooting.
Inside the glove produced a mixed DNA profile, said to relate to four people, including Murphy. He told a jury he "definitely" didn't wear any gloves on July 1, because "it was sunny".
Murphy, now of Oak Avenue, Newton-le-Willows, moaned when giving evidence that Ian Unsworth, QC, was "bang out of order" for saying he was lying to the jury. He even accused the prosecutor of talking to him "like a piece of s***".
Murphy claimed that multiple phone calls and texts he'd exchanged with Doyle that afternoon had nothing to do with plotting a murder, and were all part of making arrangements to visit San Carlo in Castle Street that night, for a slap-up meal for a friend's birthday. Somewhat surprisingly, they didn't have a reservation.
Jurors unanimously found both Murphy and Doyle guilty of murder, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life. The two men, who stormed out of the dock, will be sentenced on June 17.
