Rhys Jones’s mother broke down as she read a moving letter from a teenage girl who had just enjoyed a foreign holiday with the family
The 11-year old’s parents visited a shrine set up to his memory at the murder scene in the liverpoolo cap park where he was shot.
Melanie Jones wiped away tears as she paused to read a laminated ltter from a family friends reminding them of their happy holiday together in Menorca only a few weeks ago.
Hayley Mccann, 17,had left the message three hours earlier as Floral and other tributes to the football mad 11 years old grew outside the fir tree pub in Croxteth.
It described how Rhys reminded everyone on each day of the fortnight-long holiday that he could not wait to get back home for football practice.
He was returning home from a training session with two friends when he was shot in the back of the neck on wednesday night.
Hayley from old swan, liverpool, said” He said on holiday that he didnot like to go out because of the gangs who hang around the shops near his house. He had absolutely nothing to do with the gang scene at all.
”He took his football on holiday; he was just full of fun. I rarel saw him without it, he would kick it around near the swimming pool and when it went in, one of the adults would go in and retrieve it”
They were among a group of 16, including Rhys’s parents Stephen and Melanie, and his brother Owen,17, who went on holiday together during the last week of July and first week of August.
Mrs Jones41, a supermarket worker, and Jones, 44, a uperstore night manager, made the half-mile trip from their home to add their own flowers in tribute to their wonderful and hardworking son.
They walked hand in hand before spending five minutes inspecting the notes, bouquets a teddy bear dressed in a blue Everton Fc shirt, club pennants and scarvers.
Jones was overcomed when she read Hayley’s note telling how she and Rhys had playfully Splashed each other during the holiday.It also recalled how Rhys had drawn an everton badge on a paper table cloth while they were in a restaurant.