RHYS JONES' mother last night blamed the parents of their son's killer for making him capable of murder - and urged them to turn him in.

And in their second heart-rending appeal for help, the couple vowed to leave Croxteth Park, in Merseyside, for a new life elsewhere.

Saying she had never before felt frightened in the neighbourhood, Melanie Jones, 41, admitted: "I don't feel safe now up there. I am going to leave. I can't live on there any more. I can't go up to those shops any more.

"I've got to move somewhere else."

Rhys' father, Stephen, 44, said: "It's a question of us not being able to go up to the shops every day past the spot where our son has died."

The couple had lived happily in the three-bedroomed semi for almost two decades.

Now, Mrs Jones - who cradled her 11-year-old "baby" as he lay dying from a bullet that passed through his neck - believes she did not know what was really happening in the neighbourhood.

She said: "We never knew anything about guns. We've lived there 17 years and we've never had any trouble.

"Yes, there are gangs of kids around, but there's gangs of teenagers everywhere - especially up at the shops, because that's where they congregate.

"But I've never known anything about trouble like that. Maybe I live in a bubble, but I never thought they went up there with guns."

Rhys, an Everton FC fan, died on Wednesday in Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Police arrested ten teenagers, with six bailed and four released without charge.

Detectives believe the killer is aged between 13 and 15.

Mrs Jones said she was devastated that someone so young could commit such an appalling crime.

"It's horrendous. What kind of people are they?" she said.

"What are their parents doing, is what I want to know?

"They must know it's their kid. They must know what they're up to - or don't they care?

"I knew where my son was. I knew where my sons were all the time. If they were going out, I knew where they were, who they were with and what time they would be home.

"The parents don't care. I blame the parents most of all. There are no boundaries any more. There's no respect.

"If their parents had any thought about our pain and what we have lost, they'd turn in their son."

Yesterday morning, Everton players paid tribute to the football-mad youngster by laying a wreath and signed shirts and boots at the murder spot.

Praising the courage and strength of the Jones family, captain Phil Neville appealed for the killer or his family to come forward.