I blame parents, says Rhys mother

Melanie Jones said she could not understand the lifestyles and the lack of aspirations of the seven people convicted over the killing.

In her first television interview since the sentencing of her son's killer, Sean Mercer, she also admitted it angered her when people would say Rhys was "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

"Rhys was where he should have been. It was Sean Mercer that shouldn't have been there," she told ITV1's Real Life documentary programme.

The schoolboy was gunned down in broad daylight by Mercer as he walked home from football training through the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, in August 2007.

He was an innocent victim caught in the crossfire of an open battle between two teenage gangs in the area.

Mercer, 18, was convicted of murder at Liverpool Crown Court last December and must serve a minimum of 22 years before being eligible for parole.

James Yates, 20, Gary Kays, 26, Melvin Coy, 25, Nathan Quinn, 18, Dean Kelly, 17, and a juvenile known as Boy M were also found guilty of helping the killer cover up his crime.

Mercer's mother, Janette, 49, was also jailed for three years for perverting the course of justice as she lied to detectives during the investigation.

Mrs Jones, 43, told interviewers in the programme broadcast on Monday night that parenting was a factor in the tragedy.