Little Boy Blue actor who played Rhys Jones’ dad in ITV drama dedicates Bafta to the tragic schoolboy

THE actor who played the father of Rhys Jones in Little Boy Blue has walked off with a prestigious BAFTA.

The highly sort-after gong  was given to Brian F O'Byrne for best supporting actor at the TV awards do in London tonight.

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He said: “Thank you very much, I can’t believe I’m going to be one of those people who didn’t prepare anything."

In a touching tribute he dedicated the award to the memory of the late Rhys Jones, whose father Steve he played in the ITV series.

The drama told the story of the 11-year-old's murder in Croxteth, Liverpool.

Everton fan Rhys, 11, was shot on August 22, 2007, as he walked home from football practice through the car park of the Fir Tree Pub in Croxteth.

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Three shots were fired, with the little boy fatally struck by one of the bullets.

More than 300 officers worked on the murder investigation, with 11 people ultimately arrested over the murder.

Half a dozen more people were arrested the next day.

Sean Mercer, a member of the Croxteth Crew gang, was charged with murder with the then 18-year-old sentenced to life behind bars with a minimum of 22 years.

Fellow gang members, including James Yates, Nathan Quinn, Melvin Coy, Dean Kelly and Gary Kays were also convicted of assisting an offender.

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As Rhys lay dying Yates helped Mercer dispose of his bike, clothes and the gun he had provided him with just before the shooting.

ITV has said both Melanie and Steve Jones supported them in the making of the drama.

Melanie, played by Sinead Keenan, and husband Steve, played by Bryan O’Byrne, said: “Our decision to get involved with Little Boy Blue stemmed principally from a desire to honour our son, Rhys, whom we lost ten years ago this year.

“It is very important to us, and our other son, Owen, to keep his memory alive and for people to understand how important he was to us.

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“But beyond this we saw this as an opportunity to let the public see what happens to a family like ours in a situation like this.

“We wanted to show how the pressures we were placed under, the huge weight of grief thrust upon us, the endless waiting, not knowing if we would get justice for Rhys, can tear a family apart.

“We spoke very openly to the programme makers about what we went through because we wanted to let Sean Mercer and the others involved in Rhys’s murder know that our sentence never ends.”

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Who won at the Bafta TV Awards 2018?

International – The Handmaid’s Tale
Supporting Actor – Brian F O'Byrne (Little Boy Blue)
Comedy Entertainment Programme - Murder in Successville
Drama Series – Peaky Blinders
Best News Coverage - The Rohingya Crisis (Sky News)
Best Current Affairs - Panorama Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets
Best Mini-Series - Three Girls
Sport - The Grand National
Best Reality and Constructed Factual - Love Island
Supporting Actress – Vanessa Kirby (The Crown)
Best Factual Series - Ambulance
Best Live Event - World War One Remembered - Passchendaele
Short-form programme - Morgana Robinson's Summer
Best Single Drama - Murdered for Being Different
Specialist Factual - Basquiat: Rage to Riches
Best Scripted Comedy - This Country
Best Features - Cruising with Jane McDonald
Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme - Toby Jones (Detectorists)
Must See Moment - Blue Planet II - mother pilot whale grieves
Best Soap and continuing drama - Casualty
Best Single Documentary - Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad
Entertainment Performance – Graham Norton
Entertainment Programme – Britain's Got Talent
Leading Actress – Molly Windsor
Leading Actor – Sean Bean (Broken)

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