Stay With Me, Rhys: The heartbreaking story of Rhys Jones, by his mother. As seen on ITV’s new documentary Police Tapes
Melanie Jones
Apr 2018 · Random House
4.7star
21 reviewsreport
Ebook
336
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
‘Stay with me, Rhys,’ I kept saying over and over again. ‘Please stay with me. I love you.’
There was still no expression in his eyes. I was talking and talking to him, desperate to let him know I was there, but there was no flicker in his face. In hindsight, it was like he’d already gone.
It's a Wednesday evening in Liverpool in the summer holidays, and Melanie is expecting her Everton-mad eleven-year-old son back from football practice very soon. She turns on Coronation Street and sets about stripping the wallpaper off the walls in the lounge, which is long-overdue a makeover. Suddenly she receives a frantic knock at the door. Rhys has been shot on his way home.
From that fateful day when Melanie cradled her child as he lay dying, repeating to him ‘Stay with Me, Rhys’, to the day in court when his killers were finally sent down, this is a story of a family in trauma, of a community united behind them and of how a notorious local gang who terrorised the neighbourhood was brought to justice.
In 2017, more than 7 million people watched the drama unfold in the highly-acclaimed ITV series Little Boy Blue. And now Melanie Jones tells the family's unbelievable story for the first time.
Melanie, her husband Steve and Rhys’s brother Owen have been through unimaginable pain. The grief doesn’t go away, but the strength they’ve found within it is an inspiration.
Ratings and reviews
4.7
21 reviews
Samantha Hann
- Flag inappropriate
May 3, 2018
Absolutely heartbroken reading this book. This poor family :( as a Scouser
I remember this happening. I was a teenager at the time but even I knew it
was a devastating event. Rest in peace Rhys xx
1 person found this review helpful
Julie Shaw
- Flag inappropriate
April 18, 2020
sad but hits home
Irfan Sardar
- Flag inappropriate
September 19, 2023
Hu hu ko hu V hu hu fr the best
About the author
Melanie Jones was born in Wrexham and grew up in Liverpool. She met Steve at her local Tesco, where they both worked, when she was 17 and they married five years later in 1987. They had their first son, Owen, in 1990 and second son, Rhys, in 1995. Their happy family life was torn apart on 22 August 2007, when eleven-year-old Rhys was shot by a stray bullet fired by gang member Sean Mercer as he walked home from football training. He later died in hospital. After Rhys’s murder and the trial, Mel and Steve continued to work at Tesco and have helped in efforts to raise over £300,000 for a local community centre in Rhys’s name, which opened in 2013. They also collaborated with Jeff Pope on the recent ITV drama Little Boy Blue.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
