RHYS GUN PEDDLER TARGETED IN PRISON Violent jail gang’s chilling threat
EXCLUSIVE JOE HINTON THE thug who supplied the gun to kill schoolboy Rhys Jones is living in fear after jail gangsters threatened him for being a “grass”.
James Yates handed Sean Mercer the revolver that cut down 11-year-old Rhys as he walked home from football training – then tried to do a deal with police.
Gangsters who learned of his actions from ITV drama Little Boy Blue have branded him a snitch and a “baby killer”.
The violent mob from Salford, Lancs, known as the A-Team and responsible for shootings and grenade attacks, told him he will be “ironed out” if they see him on the jail wing.
Former Croxteth “Crocky Crew” member Yates is back in Forest Bank jail in Warrington, Cheshire, after breaching the terms of his release.
He was punched in the face the day after the drama was aired and has not been out of his cell since, insiders say.
A source told the Daily Star Sunday: “He’s a coward and certainly isn’t the big man he thought he was.
“When all that came out about him trying to help cover up that kid’s killing then try and deal with police to save his own a***, people in here were fuming.
“He got chinned and everyone was shouting ‘grass’ and calling him a baby killer.
“Thing is he hasn’t got much protection in here.
“And there’s a serious firm who pretty much run the place and that’s the Salford A-Team boys.
“He’s been told he’ll be cut up if they see him on the wing and ever since he’s been sh****** himself.”
Yates supplied the battered Smith and Wesson revolver used to shoot Rhys in Croxteth’s Fir Tree Pub car park in 2007.
He then doused killer Mercer in petrol to destroy evidence.
When police arrested the gang and charged his parents with perverting justice, he tried to do a deal with them in an attempt to drop the charges.
Rhys’ mum Melanie said of the thug: “He may not have pulled the trigger, but he was minding the gun.
“For us, Yates is the most evil of them all. He makes my skin crawl.”
Yates was jailed for seven years in 2009, later increased to 12, and served five before being released.
But he was back inside a year after his release, charged in relation to an alleged drugs ring in Dundee, Scotland, and accused of using threats and violence towards others during the running of the ring.
He was cleared of that but is now back in jail for another alleged breach.
The source said: “He hasn’t learned despite everything that’s happened.”