16-year-old girl shot and mother killed in sleep, yet 20 years since prime suspect remains at large

Liam Kelly was just 16 when he was approached by two men as he got out of a friend’s car and shot.

The teenager, who lived on Upper Parliament Street in Toxteth, was shot dead in the early hours of June 19, 2004, in nearby Grafton Street. Twenty years since the main suspect – Kevin Parle – continues to elude the authorities. Parle was questioned in connection with the murder, but was released on bail.

And the following year, the privately educated man fled the UK after masked gunmen stormed a home and shot dead young mum Lucy Hargreaves. Parle is suspected of being the gunman who targeted not only Liam, but also one of the men involved in Lucy’s death 14 months later. But despite an intense manhunt that saw him become one of the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) most wanted fugitives, the 6ft 5in career killer has yet to be brought to justice.

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As part of the ECHO’s fortnightly series looking at the organized crime threat in the region, we took a closer look at Parle’s alleged involvement in the two murders and the investigation into his whereabouts.

The events of June 19, 2004

Liam was ambushed as he got out of a friend’s silver Vauxhall Astra on Grafton Street and was hit by a bullet in the chest and another in the right arm. It is believed that it was Parle who pulled the trigger as part of a dispute between Liam and a man named Anthony Campbell, to whom the 16-year-old allegedly owed a £200 debt.

In the hours before the shooting, Liam was frustrated with duty and drove to Campbell’s aunt’s house and threw a bicycle through the front window. The incident is said to have angered his rivals and prompted them to stage the shooting. Parle is believed to have been shot at close range by a masked man carrying a double-barreled shotgun.

The teenager staggered to a neighbour’s house and collapsed, however the chest wound he suffered proved fatal and he died in the early hours of 19 June. After the murder, several people, including Parle, were arrested in connection with the murder. Despite Parle not responding to bail, Campbell and co-conspirator Peter Sinclair were hauled before the courts in connection with the shooting.

Campbell pleaded guilty to arranging the murder and was jailed for life with a minimum term of more than two decades, while Sinclair admitted assisting an offender, namely Parle, the alleged gunman. It was heard how Sinclair agreed to help Parle between June 18 and 24 by throwing away two mobile phones and standing by while burning clothing that could have contained incriminating evidence.

A trial was also said he drove the murder suspect to Hannah Morgan’s home and then back to Liverpool to retrieve Parle’s car and waited for him while it was parked in Eastham, Wirral. Sinclair was jailed for eight years, while a then 20-year-old woman also admitted perverting the course of justice by giving a false witness statement to the police.

In 2014, 10 years after Liam’s murder, detectives issued a £20,000 reward for information leading to Parle’s capture. An officer from Merseyside Matrix Police said at the time: “Liam’s mother, Mary, in particular, has suffered enormously when she lost her son in such a violent and untimely way.

“Tragically, he was denied the opportunity to see his boy grow into a man and perhaps have a family of his own. When Liam was killed, Mary made a heartfelt plea directly to his friends and associates, begging them to tell the police anything that could help us bring his killers to justice.”

14 months later – mum Lucy Hargreaves was shot in her sleep

Fourteen months after Liam’s murder, mum Lucy, 22, was shot as she slept on the sofa of her home in Lambourne Road, Walton, when three masked men intervened. She was shot three times with a sawed-off shotgun. the remorseless killers doused his comforter with gasoline and set fire to his body and house.

The flames quickly engulfed her home, forcing her boyfriend Gary Campbell, who was sleeping upstairs at the time, and their two-year-old daughter to escape through a bedroom window. Gary then ran back into the house in an attempt to save Lucy, but it was too late – the 22-year-old had been killed instantly by the gunshots to the stomach and head.

It was a wrongful and heinous crime with the killers, instead, after Gary, whom they blamed for a run that killed four-year-old Kevin Downes in Huyton in August 1993. Recalling the events in the ECHO, Gary said: “I went on my face, I didn’t know what to do and I tried to go back and get Lucy. I couldn’t handle the flames, I was melting.

“I tried to get through the front door but I couldn’t so I broke the window and went through the window and grabbed her off the couch. I couldn’t get in the front door because of the flames, I was black and burning, I couldn’t see, so I had to go through the front window, break it and feel with my hands… I had to lift and take her out.

Gary has denied being present in the vehicle that killed young Kevin Downes, claiming he left the car just moments before the fatal crash. Driver Adam Ellis, aged just 14, was given a 12-month sentence, causing a huge outcry in Merseyside at the time.

Gangsters Tony Downes, Kevin’s older brother, and Kirk Bradley stood trial for Lucy’s murder in 2007, but were acquitted midway through the trial after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed. The pair later received life sentences for their roles in a gang war.

Observations of Parle in later years

Following Parle’s disappearance, a number of sightings have been reported. Popular opinion was that Parle was holed up in Spain after fleeing the British authorities. However, eyewitness accounts and detailed descriptions of brief incidents indicated that they may have been, at different times, in Europe and Asia.

Parle, nicknamed Hemp, is said to have been well educated, smartly dressed and had connections as a young man with Mossley Hill. Sightings of Parle have been claimed in the Canary Islands, Asia, and many eyewitness accounts of him on the Costa Blanca in Spain. Further claims have been made that the Liverpudlian regularly visits a cannabis cafe and is also with a group of women who allegedly snorted coke in bar toilets, prompting Parle to confront with a bartender who wanted to throw them out, it was said.

Both sightings are claimed to have taken place in Albir, a small beach resort sandwiched between Altea and Benidorm on the north coast. He is also said to have spent an entire summer hiding in Mi Sol Holiday Park in Torrevieja in 2006.

Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley has devoted much of his time in recent years to finding Parle. In recent years, he has dispelled rumors that Parle is actually dead and challenged the criminal underworld to prove it. Previous suggestions include that Parle was killed by criminals in London after “robbing drug dealers” or that he was killed – and his remains buried or put at sea – while fleeing to Spain.

Of the claims, Mr Bleksley said: “There is no continuous, believable thread running through all of this that makes me believe he is dead.” On the sightings, he added that eyewitness accounts constituted “irrefutable” evidence from Parle. at least he got away from Liverpool and got to the south of that country.

Mr Bleksley has previously reported that intelligence suggests Parle provided security for a major gang. That outfit is described as a drug ring with access to large sums of money.

A former colleague of Parle’s at a garage in Liverpool described him as “crazy as a box of frogs” and said he was “on the street” and “hanging out with some blokes in south Liverpool” – but that he didn’t think that he is capable of the crimes he was linked to.

£20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Kevin Parle

But Howard Rubbery, from Merseyside Police’s major crime unit, previously told the ECHO: “We remain committed to finding justice for the families of 16-year-old Liam Kelly, who was shot dead as he got out of a car friend in Dingle on 19th June 2004 and Lucy Hargreaves who tragically lost her life aged 22 when she was shot at her home in Walton on 3rd August 2005.

“Kevin Parle is wanted by Merseyside Police for both murders. He remains outstanding and the force is offering a £20,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction. Parle is still believed to be living outside the UK and police inquiries are ongoing. to take place both in the UK and abroad.

“Parle is described as white, 6ft 5in tall and of broad build. He has blue eyes and a 1 inch scar on the left side of his head. He is known to have red cropped hair but the color or style of it may have changed over time, I know over the years people drift away and loyalties change and I would appeal to these people who may have crucial information, to do the right thing and come to us, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

“I would like to reassure him that there are special measures we can put in place to protect witnesses in serious cases like this. Someone, somewhere, can help us find justice for both victims, whose lives were cruelly cut short. and their families”.

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