A thug walked free from court for bottling his ex-girlfriend weeks before he shot a 15-year-old girl.
Rio Jones left his former partner with glass shards lodged in her shoulder during the attack during a night out in Liverpool city centre. He was handed a suspended sentence at Liverpool Crown Court just a month before he opened fire in the street, although an electronically-monitored tag he was ordered to wear as part of his this order placed him squarely at the scene of the shooting and meant he was forced to confess his involvement.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on January 31 last year 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.
