A gunman was forced to confess to shooting a man and an innocent schoolgirl due to his previous conviction for bottling his ex-girlfriend.
Rio Jones walked free from court over the attack, which left his former partner with glass shards lodged in her shoulder, just a month before he opened fire in the street. An electronically-monitored tag he was ordered to wear as part of his suspended sentence placed him squarely at the scene of the shooting.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on January 31 this year that there had been a "significant" age difference between then 18-year-old Jones and his older girlfriend before their relationship ended in "acrimony" last year. At around 5am on November 21, 2021 - two years to the day after a hail of bullets was fired at his home on Jermyn Street in Toxteth - the pair had a "chance meeting" on Wood Street in the city centre.
