JAMES YATES I’ll smash up their cameras

They’ll never see their son again.” In total seven members of the Croxteth Crew were jailed for their roles in the killing of Rhys – shot in the neck as Mercer tried to gun down rival gang member Brady in the pub car park. At least two have been sent back behind bars after early release. Earlier this year, James Yates, 28, and Dean Kelly, 25, had drug charges against them dropped after witnesses refused to ID them, but Yates – who armed Mercer before Rhys’ murder – was recalled to prison to serve his full 12-year term until 2020.

Kelly, who got four years for supplying Mercer with a fake alibi, had already been back behind bars after being released for his role in the killing.

In 2013 he was caught speeding away from police in a stolen van and smashed into a couple’s car as they drove their young daughter home from school.

Yates’ parents, Francis, 60, and Marie, 59, were jailed in 2008 for 18 months for destroying a SIM card linked to the murder. Francis Yates was also jailed for three years for helping establish an alibi. Gary Kays, now 34, was released in October 2011 after serving half his sevenyear term for helping Mercer dispose of clothes, the weapon and creating a false alibi. But in 2014 he was jailed for three years and five months for conspiring to supply class A drugs.

Kays drove around Liverpool in a £30,000 Mercedes while on parole and fathered a child while on day release.

Melvin Coy, 34, was jailed for seven years for assisting an offender following the murder. He was released in October 2011 along with Kays. He was back in jail in 2015 after handling a stolen car.

Janette Mercer, 59, the mother of the killer, was jailed for three years for perverting the course of justice.

dan.warburton@sundaymirror.co.uk