The mum of a young man shot in the back and left to die on a cold Wavertree street has urged the Merseyside public not to forget her son following a year of high-profile cases.
Kevin Wilson was murdered at the age of just 17 on February 7, 2015, at the junction of Smithdown Road and Holmes Street. Detectives at the time believed Kevin had been lured to the scene of his death at around 8.30pm that night.
What interaction took place, if any, between Kevin and his killers is not known, but it ended with a single bullet from a 9mm Russian Baikal automatic pistol striking the teenager in the back. Shockingly, as Kevin lay dying, local crook Curtis Connick came across his body and instead of lifting a finger to help, swiped the mobile phone he noticed ringing in Kevin's pocket.
READ MORE: Photo shows killer's handwritten note left next to dead body
Kevin's mum Jane, originally from Glasgow but who lives in Cumbria, told the ECHO it has been painful watching Merseyside rocked by the high profile murders of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Elle Edwards and Ashley Dale in 2022. This year justice was done in all three cases after major trials.
However for Jane, eight years later, the pain of Kevin's loss remains raw and overwhelming. Describing the moment she heard the news from Kevin's dad, Paul, in a late night phone call, she said: "I could not take it in. I just could not take it in. My partner, William, had only died five weeks before that, so I could not take it in.
"I stayed up all night, I could not sleep, I could not believe it. I got myself ready, and walked down to the train station. I didn't know what to do, and the lady from British Transport Police came over and asked if I was ok. I said my son, I need to get to Liverpool, my son's dead.
"Then I collapsed".
Jane says the officer arranged for her to be taken to Liverpool and she arrived to piece together the devastation. She said: "I had to see him, I had to see him, he was my boy. I didn't believe it until I saw him lying on the mortuary slab. "
Jane says that Kevin had a girlfriend in Liverpool, and would stay there while also living with his dad in London and visiting his native Glasgow.
She says Kevin was not a soft kid. After moving to Edmonton in London to live with his dad at 13, Kevin was regularly forced to stick up for himself, standing out due to his Scottish accent.
Jane said: "He was not a wee scaredy cat. He would be like 'yeah I'm from Scotland, so what?'. " Kevin did find himself mixing with a tough crowd, and police believe his death may have been linked to a dispute over drugs.
According to Jane, Kevin was far from a serious criminal. She said: "He was just a silly boy, but he got mixed up with a really bad crowd". Despite his youthful missteps in life, Jane says she misses her son constantly.
She said: "Every day. I think about him every day. He's got a mum, he's got a dad, he's got sisters and brothers. The fact his life was cut so short, that's what really hurts. We would feel so much better if they caught the guy who did it."
The investigation into Kevin's death was massive, with 13 arrests made, but no-one has been charged and detectives have met a wall of silence.
At Kevin's inquest in October, 2015, the investigation team admitted they had exhausted all known lines of enquiry. Detective Constable Martin Cunningham told Liverpool Coroner's Court that despite tracing the gun, it had not been possible to link it to the person who pulled the trigger.
The court heard on the night of his death, Kevin was called out to make a deal but was shot after meeting the unknown killer. DC Cunningham revealed that no-one had come forward to claim a £10,000 reward offered by police for information.
He said: “People are either too frightened, or don’t have that knowledge. We’ve taken it as far as we can.”
One of the main reasons the investigation stalled is likely due to the actions of Connick, then 31, who admitted dumping Kevin's phone in a bin near Lime Street Station. Despite a huge three-day search effort at a rubbish dump, police never recovered the device and the potentially critical evidence it held.
Connick was jailed for three years and three months at Liverpool Crown Court in October 2016, after admitting theft and perverting the course of justice.
A potential breakthrough did come when the murder weapon was uncovered during an open land search. But although violent criminal Malcolm Graham, then 19, was jailed in connection to possessing the Baikal pistol on a different occasion, police and prosecutors accepted he was not involved in Kevin's murder.
Graham has since made headlines for recording himself rapping about the criminal lifestyle while in prison, using the stage name Mazza L20.
Kevin's murder is now being treated as a cold case and remains under review by Merseyside Police's Serious Crime Review Unit, headed by Kevin Clague. He said: “This was a cruel and senseless crime that left a family devastated and they are still looking for answers eight years on.
“We understand that with every year that passes, Kevin’s family have still not had the justice they deserve. No murder investigation is ever closed and we remain determined as ever to find who was responsible for Kevin’s death.
“We know the answers to solving this and bringing the killer to justice lies within our communities and I would ask that people put themselves in the shoes of Kevin’s mum. How would they feel if they knew their loved one’s killer was still free and walking the streets of Merseyside?
“There are people out there who know exactly what happened on that night and we need them to find the courage and do the right thing by coming forward and speak up.
“You may have previously felt unwilling to come forward but as the years go by, allegiances change, people move away and may now feel more comfortable coming forward. Any piece of information could be the key to progressing this investigation, however trivial you think it may be.
“We know that people can be reluctant or fearful in coming forward, but please be rest assured there are special measures that we can put in place to protect witnesses."
Anyone with any information is asked to direct message @MerPolCC on X (formerly Twitter) call 101 or contact the independent charity Crimestoppers UK, completely anonymously, via social media, by calling 0800 555 111 or via their secure online form here.
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