‘Someone we knew and liked very much has died’

A NINE-YEAR-OLD friend of Rhys Jones spoke movingly yesterday of his shock and pain at the death of his friend.

Lewis Ainscough, dressed in his Liverpool football kit, said: “Heavenly Father, we are sad this afternoon because someone we knew well and liked very much has died.

“We don’t often think about people dying, especially when they are very young, so this has been a great shock to us.

“We believe that Rhys has gone to be with you.

“But that means that he is not with us any longer, which makes us sad.

“Help us to remember all the good and happy things about him, and please comfort all who are unhappy. Amen.”

There was also a direct appeal to Rhys’s killer to come forward and give himself up to police.

PC Robbie Pritchard, who works in the Croxteth area, said: “I ask you, the person who fired the gun, and you, the people who know what happened that night, how can you look at yourself in the mirror for the rest of your life knowing what you have done?

“I would ask you to face the truth and hand yourself in to police.

“I urge you please for the sake of Rhys and his family to come and tell us what happened.

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

The funeral for the youngster will be held on Thursday and his family invited all the city’s well-wishers to attend and pay their respects.

People have been asked to wear their team’s football shirts or bright colours in tribute to Rhys.

The funeral will begin at 2pm and Rhys’s favourite tune, Everton’s Z-Cars anthem, is expected to be played. The public service will be followed by a private interment attended by family and close friends.