Crime family matriarch Janette Mercer has now joined her sons in prison after failing to learn the harsh lessons of her past.
The name Sean Mercer was almost immediately linked to the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in the community, and detectives were quickly onto the young gang thug.
Rhys was walking across the car park of the Fir Tree Pub in Croxteth Park on August 22, 2007, when he was shot in the neck by Mercer, who was aiming at a rival gang member.
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Mercer, then only 16 himself, was embroiled in a street gang war between rival Croxteth and Norris Green firms which had blighted the community at the time. Mercer was eventually convicted of murder at Liverpool Crown Court and jailed for life with a 22-year minimum term.
The investigation was painstaking. Despite Mercer's name firmly on the lips of locals and plenty of tip-offs to Crimestoppers, direct evidence was hard to come by, and 10 people were eventually locked up for lying to police or hiding evidence.
One potential breakthrough was the description of Rhys's killer straddling a silver Specialized Hardrock mountain bike when he shot the 11-year-old schoolboy dead. The frame of that bike was found in a bush in a business park the following day, and was taken home by a member of the public, who realised its significance when he saw an appeal on the news.
He contacted Merseyside Police who collected the frame from his shed.
Enquiries were made with the Mercer family, who did their best to cover Mercer's tracks against the potentially damning line of enquiry.
Janette Mercer did not hesitate to lie to detectives, including in a formal witness statement, when they asked her about bicycles her son owned or had access to. Janette Mercer told police her son did not own such a bike, saying he had only a black, orange and white one.
Undeterred, detectives discovered that four months earlier she had taken delivery of the bike when it was sent to the family after an insurance claim. She was later convicted of perverting the course of justice and jailed for three years.
The ECHO also reported that during her son’s 11-week-trial she worked as a £50-a-time sex worker in a city brothel, under the alias of her daughter’s name, Danielle. On the day of her sentencing she reportedly smiled at friends and family in the public gallery as she was led away by security staff.
While in prison, Mercer was legally evicted from her home after a ruling by Judge Graham Platts. He ruled that Riverside Housing Trust could evict the family, which included at the time her 25-year-old daughter Danielle and 14-year-old son Joseph, from their Croxteth home.
The now 63-year-old was back in Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, where she faced sentence after admitting assisting an offender - her other son, Joseph. Janette allowed the fugitive to live with her while misleading the police over his whereabouts.
Charlotte Kenny, prosecuting, told the court that his mother "knew he was wanted by police" in connection with drugs offences but she allowed him to stay at her home on Daisy Street, Kirkdale, during a six-month period in 2019 and 2020 "to impede his apprehension". Police attended the address on several occasions while looking for Joseph Mercer during this time, but Janette Mercer claimed she only spoke to her son rarely when he called her on a withheld number.
During one visit from officers, she “presented as being extremely anxious” and was “having palpitations” but said she did not require an ambulance. On December 4 2019, PCs knocked on her door on two occasions but received no answer.
A dog could be heard barking inside, while the television was on during the second visit. A PC contacted Mercer by phone on this date, but she stated she "only spoke to him now and again".
Joseph Mercer was eventually located at the property by the force on June 13 2020, and it was "evident he had been living there" as well as spending periods at the Malmaison Hotel in Liverpool city centre. His clothes were located in a wardrobe and his identification was found in a chest of drawers, while a stash of cannabis was also seized from the bedroom where he had been staying.
He was imprisoned for 30 months in October 2020 for peddling heroin and crack cocaine from a hotel room in Bournemouth. The then 25-year-old was locked up alongside a 29-year-old from Childwall, after both admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.
Clare Ashcroft, defending Janette Mercer, said her client had been freed from prison in late 2010 and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder the following year.
Ms Ashcroft added: "It’s fair to say a lot has been written about her, because she is a lady of some notoriety. The court will be concerned by the commission of this latest offence.
"It’s a second offence of a similar type to the first. It is fair to say what Ms Mercer is charged with and to which she has entered her guilty plea is over a period of some time, about six months, providing accommodation to her son when she knew he was wanted by the police.
"Ms Mercer was and is of such character - impaired by her mental disorder, her depression, her anxiety and her PTSD - that she was unable to stand back and rationalise what she should do when confronted by the police. She had her son manipulating her, whether willfully or otherwise - she simply didn’t have the fortitude to see clearly through the situation."
She was jailed for nine months
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