Gang member who supplied gun used to kill Rhys Jones to be freed from jail this week – for the second time
THE thug who supplied the gun that killed 11-year-old Rhys Jones is to be released from jail again this week.
James Yates, 32, got a 12-year sentence after the 2007 murder and was first freed in 2018.
He ended up back behind bars last November for breaching his licence conditions but will now be let out again.
The former gang member gave killer Sean Mercer the gun he shot Rhys with in Croxteth, Liverpool, and later helped cover his tracks.
Rhys’s parents have also been told that strict conditions banning Yates from going back to Croxteth, where they still live, are no longer in force.
Dad Steve Jones said: “It’s very disappointing. We could bump into him at any time.”
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Mercer, then 18, shot innocent Rhys outside the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth Park during a gang war.
He was later found guilty of murder.
Yates helped him to dispose of his bike, clothes and the gun he gave him minutes before the shooting. His parents, Francis and Marie Yates, were convicted of trying to throw detectives off the scent and hide their son’s involvement.
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