As Liverpool reeled in shock over the murder of a little boy on his way to football practice, Janette Mercer was more concerned with keeping her killer son out of prison.
Sean Mercer's involvement in one of the most sickening crimes of the decade - the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones - was no secret in the community long before he was charged. But cases are made on evidence, not hearsay, and detectives worked tirelessly to get the proof needed to ensure justice for Rhys's family.
Rhys was walking across the car park of the Fir Tree Pub in Croxteth Park on August 22, 2007, when he was shot in the neck by Mercer, who was aiming at a rival gang member.
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Mercer, then only 16 himself, was embroiled in a street gang war between rival Croxteth and Norris Green firms which had blighted the community at the time. Mercer was eventually convicted of murder at Liverpool Crown Court and jailed for life with a 22-year minimum term.
The investigation was painstaking. Despite Mercer's name firmly on the lips of locals and plenty of tip-offs to Crimestoppers, direct evidence was hard to come by, and 10 people were eventually locked up for lying to police or hiding evidence.
One potential breakthrough was the description of Rhys's killer straddling a silver Specialized Hardrock mountain bike when he shot the 11-year-old schoolboy dead. The frame of that bike was found in a bush in a business park the following day, and was taken home by a member of the public, who realised its significance when he saw an appeal on the news.
He contacted Merseyside Police who collected the frame from his shed.
Enquiries were made with the Mercer family, who did their best to cover Mercer's tracks against the potentially damning line of enquiry.
Janette Mercer did not hesitate to lie to detectives, including in a formal witness statement, when they asked her about bicycles her son owned or had access to. Janette Mercer told police her son did not own such a bike, saying he had only a black, orange and white one.
Undeterred, detectives discovered that four months earlier she had taken delivery of the bike when it was sent to the family after an insurance claim. She was later convicted of perverting the course of justice and jailed for three years.
The ECHO also reported that during her son’s 11-week-trial she worked as a £50-a-time sex worker in a city brothel, under the alias of her daughter’s name, Danielle. On the day of her sentencing she reportedly smiled at friends and family in the public gallery as she was led away by security staff.
While in prison, Mercer was legally evicted from her home after a ruling by Judge Graham Platts. He ruled that Riverside Housing Trust could evict the family, which included at the time her 25-year-old daughter Danielle and 14-year-old son Joseph, from their Croxteth home.
The now 63-year-old was brought back before Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, where she pleaded guilty to assisting an offender. The charge relates to another of her three sons, Joseph Mercer, who she is believed to have helped while he was being investigated over drug supply offences.
He was imprisoned for 30 months in October 2020 after being caught peddling heroin and crack cocaine from a hotel room in Bournemouth. The then 25-year-old, of Daisy Street in Kirkdale, was locked up alongside a 29-year-old from Childwall, after both admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.
His car was then found in the car park of another nearby hotel later the same day. When officers entered their room at this premises, he and Mercer were found inside with nearly 100 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine plus £1,000 in cash as well as several mobile phones and a set of scales.
Janette Mercer, also of Daisy Street, will be sentenced in February and was released on bail ahead of that date. She hid her face as she left court.
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