The schoolboy Jessie James was shot because he had shown “disrespect” to criminal gangs by refusing repeated attempts to recruit him, his mother told her son’s inquest yesterday.

Barbara Reid, 47, told the hearing in Manchester that the 15-year-old son she described as her “prince charmer” had been left to die alone like an animal for humiliating the gunmen.

Jessie, a promising schoolboy, was ambushed and shot dead early one day last September as he cycled through Broadfield Park, in Moss Side, a known haunt of the notorious Gooch Close gang. His murderer has yet to be arrested.

One witness has described how the teenager had become a marked man after he was “fingered” wrongly as a member of the rival Doddington gang in front of “Gooch boys”.

Ms Reid, giving evidence on the second day of the hearing, said that the gunmen had made clear to her son that there were two sides and that he had to choose which one to join. He had refused to do so.

“They said to him ‘choose’ but he did not want to,” she said. “He wanted to be everybody’s friend. But they said that if he did not choose there is going to be enough blood around here. Three days later Jessie was dead.”

Ms Reid said: “Little did I know the gangs made Jessie’s life hell. Jessie was cornered, pointed out and intimidated at every opportunity. He was coerced and compelled to join the gang.

“Time and time again until his death, Jessie humiliated the gangsters to their face by saying no to the gang. He said, ‘I don’t want to join the gang. All I want to be is Jessie.’

“This infuriated the gang and because they could not stand Jessie’s rejection, they killed him. I am told Jessie showed incredible strength when challenged by the gangsters who took his life because they could not stand a 15-year-old boy’s rejection.”

Ms Reid’s daughter Rosemary urged her on from the well of Manchester Crown Court, where the inquest is being held amid tight security.

Jessie’s mother said that he had been preparing for his GCSEs, at Manchester Academy. He had wanted to become an architect but had recently developed a passion for engineering.

“He was a very kind, compassionate, enthusiastic, humorous and loving child,” his mother said. “He had a heart of gold. Even in death he was smiling.”

She said that she had had no fears for her son’s safety because he was such a “humble, likeable boy who had no enemy”.

She added: “Jessie was brought up in the Church. He knows right from wrong. He had a choice, and now he is dead. There will always be an empty void in my heart. Jessie was snatched away from me without me saying goodbye.

“Justice is what I seek and justice is my utmost desire.”

Nigel Meadows, the Coroner, has offered witnesses anonymity in an attempt to reassure those too frightened to come forward. Police believe that members of the local community know who is responsible for Jessie’s murder but are scared of reprisals if they speak to detectives.

Earlier the inquest heard evidence from an off-duty police officer who had gone back to sleep without alerting the authorities after a witness phoned him in the early hours to tell him of seeing and hearing gunshots in the park and a shadow fall to the ground.

Witness A, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was hysterical and told the detective, known as Officer A, they believed they had seen a shooting, according to Pete Weatherby, a lawyer representing the family.

Officer A denied he had been given this description, describing the account of events as “vague”. Had he been told that someone had been hurt or killed in a shooting he would have contacted headquarters, he said.

The hearing continues.

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