The man accused of murdering the 11-year-old schoolboy Rhys Jones admitted to a friend that he had shot a child, the jury at Liverpool Crown Court heard today.

The friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is one of the gang members alleged to have helped Sean Mercer, 18, in a sophisticated operation to destroy evidence linking him with the murder.

Neil Flewitt, QC, opening for the prosecution, said that the witness, identified only as Boy M, is expected to tell the jury in evidence that he acted only because he was scared of the alleged killer.

Boy M is alleged to have allowed Mr Mercer to use his mobile phone to summon another youth to his home; to help him to get rid of the gun used to kill the schoolboy; to have disposed of his clothing; and to have helped with the removal of the bicycle used in the shooting.

Boy M, aged 16, shares the dock with Mr Mercer and five others. He denies assisting an offender.

Mr Flewitt said: "Unlike the other defendants, Boy M accepts most of what is alleged against him. However, it is his case that he is not guilty of the offences with which he is charged because he was, at all times, acting under duress, ie he was not exercising free will when he did what is alleged against him but rather was acting out of fear of Sean Mercer, who had told him that he had shot a kid and who had demanded his assistance in avoiding detection."

The jury has been told that Rhys was the innocent victim of a gangland feud between the Strand Gang or Nogga Dogs, based in Norris Green, and The Croxteth Crew, based in the Croxteth area of east Liverpool.

He was shot through the neck and went into immediate cardiac arrest as he walked home from football practice across the Fir Tree Public house in Croxteth Park shortly before 7.30pm on Wednesday, August 22.

Yesterday the jury was told that the gun used to kill Rhys was a .455 Smith and Wesson of World War One vintage.

Mr Flewitt also told them that they will hear evidence of a large number of telephone calls between the alleged conspirators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Mr Flewitt said: "It is the prosecution case that Sean Mercer, accompanied by James Yates and Boy Q, was driven from [an address in Liverpool] by Melvin Coy who, at the time, was with Gary Kays.

"It is the prosecution case that Sean Mercer was taken to Melvin Coy's unit in Kirkby where his clothes were destroyed and he was cleaned with petrol to ensure the disappearance of any remaining gunshot residue."

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