‘Our sentence never ends, we’ve lost our son’

Stephen Graham takes the role of Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly who led the investigation into Rhys’s murder on behalf of Merseyside Police, while Sinead Keenan and Brían F O’Byrne

play the boy’s parents Melanie and Steve Jones.

The film-makers have been at pains to point out that the series has had the full support and endorsement of the real Melanie and Steve Jones who have said: “Our decision to get involved with

stemmed principally from a desire to honour our son, Rhys, whom we lost 10 years ago this year.

“It is very important to us, and our other son, Owen, to keep his memory alive and for people to understand how important he was to us.

“But beyond this we saw this as an opportunity to let the public see what happens to a family like ours in a situation like this.

“We wanted to show how the pressures we were placed under, the huge weight of grief thrust upon us, the endless waiting, not knowing if we would get justice for Rhys, can tear a family apart.

“We spoke very openly to the programme makers about what we went through because we wanted to let (those) involved in Rhys’s murder know that our sentence never ends.

“Our pain will only fade, it will never go away. And that by trying to avoid the consequences of their actions they only increased that pain. We wanted them to know that there is no ‘closure’ for