Rhys's mother: My hatred for killer

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Melanie Jones said she was overpowered by hate as she looked at Sean Mercer when the guilty verdicts were read out in court.

She told the News of the World: "I now realise that I hate him. I will never forgive him for destroying our family. I will hate him for the rest of my life."

She revealed the family had received thousands of messages of support, including a hand-written letter from Kate and Gerry McCann and another from Wayne and Coleen Rooney.

The family will now move from their home in Liverpool's Croxteth Park after the ordeal of their 11-year-old son's murder in a nearby pub car park and the subsequent trial.

The football-mad schoolboy was killed in August last year when Mercer, a member of the Croxteth Crew gang, blasted three shots across the car park outside the Fir Tree pub.

He was trying to hit rival Strand Gang members but one of the shots hit Rhys, who was walking home from football training.

His football coach, Tony Edge, dashed to the family home to tell Melanie what had happened and took her to where Rhys lay dying.

Mrs Jones said: "That scene in the car park comes back to me in my nightmares. Rhys was flat on his back, his eyes wide open. There was blood everywhere. We were a four-piece jigsaw and suddenly we were a piece short. And it's never going to be the same."

On Tuesday, she fought back tears as Mercer was jailed for a minimum of 22 years at Liverpool Crown Court.