Mum of Rhys Jones’ killer Sean Mercer jailed for helping one of her sons hide from cops during Class A drugs probe
THE mum of a gunman who shot dead schoolboy Rhys Jones was jailed for helping one of her sons hide from police.
Everton fan Rhys Jones, 11, was on his way home from playing football when he was shot dead by gang member Sean Mercer.
Mercer, who was aiming for a rival gang member, shot Rhys by accident. Mercer, a member of Liverpool’s Croxteth
Crew gang, was jailed for life following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court in 2009 when he was just 16.
Mercer’s mum Janette, 63, was back behind bars today for lying to police about her drug dealer son Joseph.
The former sex worker had pleaded guilty to assisting an offender, and was jailed for nine months.
The court heard that Janette allowed Joseph Mercer to live at her house while he was wanted by police in relation to drug offences.
Joseph Mercer was jailed for 30 months in October 2020 for drug offences in the Bournemouth area.
Janette was jailed in 2009 after she told a “pack of lies” to protect Sean after the Rhys Jones murder.
Jailing her in 2009, Judge Globe QC said: “You backed up your son and told more lies.”
Several others were also convicted of helping Mercer, including other gang members and their parents.
James Yates and Dean Kelly were jailed after supplying the firearm and helping to hide Mercer when he was on the run.
Rhys’ dad Stephen said later: “In our eyes they have always been as guilty as their sons.
“For us, no prison sentence for these people would be long enough.”
Janette was released from jail in 2012.
The Rhys Jones murder scarred the city and led to a massive police operation aimed at smashing drug gangs that made life a misery for locals in Croxteth and Norris Green.
Rhys was the city’s youngest victim of gun crime at the time of his death.