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Killer of Rhys Jones withdraws sentence appeal
11 Sep 2009The killer of Rhys Jones has withdrawn his appeal against his 22-year jail term.
Teenage gang member Sean Mercer was due to go the Court of Appeal next week to fight the minimum prison term handed to him for murdering the schoolboy.
But today Merseyside Police and the Court of Appeal in London confirmed the appeal was not going ahead and Mercer, 18, would not see the outside world until 2030 at the earliest.
Rhys's parents Stephen and Melanie Jones had prepared to travel from Liverpool to London to face their boy's killer once more. Now they will be spared the additional trauma.
Last December, despite not offering an explanation of why he was innocent, Mercer brazened out an 11-week murder trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
He was convicted unanimously and Mr Justice Irwin made blistering sentencing remarks telling him he and his fellow gang members were not "soldiers" - the term used by street thugs to romanticise gangs.
"You have no discipline, no training, no honour," the judge told Mercer and his six co-accused.
"You do not command respect. You may think you do, but that is because you cannot tell the difference between respect and fear.
"You are selfish, shallow criminals, remarkable only by the danger you pose to others."
Rhys was killed as he walked home from football training in Croxteth Park in August 2007.
Mercer fired three shots from a 1915 Smith & Wesson revolver across a pub car park at opposition gang members. The second bullet hit Rhys, 11.
Despite seeing the youngster collapse bleeding Mercer continued firing.
Reader views (1)
The first decent thing the lad has probably ever done!
- Mandy, London, 11/09/2009 13:02
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