Family of woman shot in her home question handling of case

The family of a woman shot dead in her own home while her three-year-old daughter was upstairs have raised questions about the police handling of her unsolved murder.

Lucy Hargreaves, 22, was sleeping on a couch when three masked men burst into the house in Walton, Liverpool, on 3 August 2005, and opened fire with a sawn-off shotgun before setting the property alight.

Two gangland figures were charged with her murder and put on trial at Liverpool Crown Court in December 2007, but a judge dismissed the charges part way through the prosecution case.

Merseyside Police said it was conducting a "comprehensive review" of the case and would share the results with Lucy's family when it was complete.

Police believe the intended target of the attack on Lambourne Road was Lucy's partner Gary Campbell, who was asleep upstairs and had to escape out of a window with their child.

The family said: "We have raised major concerns about the original investigation and the Crown Prosecution Service handling of the case. We await the outcome of a police review which also involves the CPS."

The force believes the third killer to have been Kevin Parle, who fled to Spain a short time after the shooting and remains on the run 21 years later.

He was also on police bail having been arrested on suspicion of another murder - the 2004 shooting of 16-year-old Liam Kelly in Dingle.

Parle, now 49, is one of the National Crime Agency's most wanted fugitives.

In their official complaint, seen by the BBC, the family allege potential failings by the police and Crown Prosecution Service meant prosecutors were unable to effectively oppose the defence application to halt the trial in 2007.

It also raises questions about Parle's bail conditions and how he was able to flee the country.

The family said they first shared concerns about the case with Merseyside Police in 2008 in the aftermath of the collapsed trial, but were told it would be dealt with after Parle was captured and prosecuted.

However in April 2022, with the hunt for 6ft 5in Parle approaching two decades with no signs of progress, the family decided to submit a formal complaint - which was initially dismissed by Merseyside Police.

The family appealed to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which ruled the force's complaint handler had failed to properly understood the concerns raised and ordered it to re-investigate.

The result of the fresh investigation into their complaint is pending.

Back in 2007, gangland criminals Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes were part way into their trials for Lucy's murder when their defence teams lodged an application to dismiss the charges.

They said the prosecution had failed to present enough evidence to prove a third man, Adam McNally, was the user of a mobile phone which was integral in connecting Parle, Bradley and Downes to a stolen Lexus car used by the killers.

McNally was not accused of murder but was on trial alongside the two other men charged with burglary, theft and handling stolen goods in relation to the car - while Parle was named as the third murder suspect despite his absence.

That phone, ending in 480, had been in contact with two men who admitted stealing the Lexus and a mobile phone from the home of a Liverpool solicitor.

The prosecution claimed McNally was involved in supplying the car to Parle, Downes and Bradley.

McNally accepted he had used the phone in the past, but claimed he regularly changed his devices and had not been using it at the relevant time.

The 480 phone was never recovered.

In his ruling, trial judge Recorder Henry Globe QC said no jury could conclude on the evidence that McNally was the user of the phone, and he was acquitted.

Globe said: "The consequence of that flows through the cases against Parle and Downes and Bradley wherever reliance is placed on contact with the 480 phone."

With the link to the getaway car eliminated, Downes and Bradley walked free.

But they are now serving life sentences for running a criminal network that carried out a series of shootings in Merseyside, unrelated to the Lucy Hargreaves case.

One offence involved a plot which saw a grenade left outside the home of former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish.

In 2011, while on remand charged with firearms offences, the pair escaped from a prison van but were later arrested in the Netherlands and returned to the UK.

Lucy's family's complaint suggests not enough was done to prove who was using the 480 phone - citing the fact that only 10% of its billing data was presented by the prosecution.

It also questions why no CCTV evidence had been presented in court around the movements of the Lexus between the morning it was stolen on 26 July 2005 and the night of the murder.

The family say they believe relevant CCTV is in the possession of the police and urged them to review any footage, and that the decision not to treat the theft of the Lexus as directly related to the murder "hampered" the available evidence.

Other aspects of the prosecution case which were challenged by the defence included the alleged motive.

The prosecution had claimed Downes wanted Lucy's partner dead because, as a teenager in 1993, Campbell had been a passenger in a car which struck and killed his four-year-old brother, Kevin Downes.

However in its application to dismiss the charges the defence presented other possible motives related to Campbell's "lifestyle", which the family argue were not rebutted sufficiently by the prosecution.

Lucy's family are still appealing for information about her death.

"There is no happy ending for the family and friends of Lucy Hargreaves but we appeal to you all please come forward if you have any information which could leave us closer to justice," they said.

Howard Rubbery, head of Merseyside's Serious Crime Review Unit, said: "A comprehensive review is ongoing and when this work is complete, this will be discussed with Lucy's family.

"We are as determined as ever to get justice for Lucy, and would of course welcome any new information."

A spokesperson for the CPS added: "Our thoughts remain with the family of Lucy Hargreaves, with whom we have had contact regarding their concerns.

"No further evidence has been referred to the CPS for consideration of a charging decision."

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