The lie that caused the murder of an innocent man and war on the streets

The murder of a young man shot dead inside his own home in a bungled hit came against the backdrop of feuding gangs whose members wielded machetes and let off guns without remorse. Mikey Rainsford was just 20 when he was shot dead inside his home on Harrington Road, in Litherland, on April 7 2020.

The young man wasn’t in a gang but the home he lived in was situated in the middle of an area controlled by a local gang called the Kirkstone Riot Squad (KRS). On the night in question, two brothers, Michael and James Foy, who were embedded in gang culture through their association with KRS’ rivals Linacre Young Guns (LYG), sought revenge after a brick was put through their mum’s window.

Around an hour later, the Foy brothers, who had false information that Mikey was behind the attack at their mum’s house, had met up and carried out the heinous attack. This month Mikey’s dad, Michael Sr, spoke to the ECHO and claimed Merseyside Police had evidence to tie James Foy to another gun, seized as part of an investigation targeting gang crime, but didn’t act.

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Over four years after his son’s murder, Mr Rainsford claimed he is still waiting for answers as to why Foy, previously named in gang injunctions, wasn’t charged with possession of the firearm until after his son’s death. As part of a weekly series looking back at Merseyside’s crime history, the ECHO has taken a closer look at the gang feud that saw at least 18 shootings in 2019 alone. The sight of bloodied pavements, broken windows and cordoned off streets became a familiar sight around Bootle, Seaforth and Litherland, but the fatal shooting of an innocent man dragged into the conflict because of where he lived pulled it all more into the spotlight.

The heinous gun attack

There were fewer gun attacks in 2020, but the shots fired through Mikey’s kitchen window on April 7 destroyed two families. During the Foy brothers’ trial the following year, the jury heard evidence of the pair’s association with gang violence. Mikey was not considered a figure of any significance to those who monitored the street gang circuit that formed the backdrop of his death, but the problem for the passionate skateboarder was the activity of the KRSs in his neighbourhood.

His dad told police: "He wasn’t in a gang, but was perceived to be in a gang because of where he lived.” In the warped minds of the thugs involved, the streets surrounding the Rainsford family home were largely viewed as the territory of the KRS, fierce rivals of the Young Guns.

So it was of little surprise when the Foys turned their attention to that area when they were looking for revenge after bricks were hurled at their Seaforth home. The mystery is why they ended up outside popular Mikey's home armed with a handgun while intent on retribution.

As well as not posing any threat to the Foys, Mikey had played no role in the brick attack on Rossini Street that sparked their murderous act less than an hour later. CCTV from the area actually showed them scouting a different property nearby first.

As they moved on, their phones lit up on the grainy camera footage. Prosecutors said both were seeking information on backup targets. Whatever those conversations were, sadly, the brothers then turned their attention to Harrington Road.

Machete attacks and drug dealing misery

The LYGs caused trouble across South Sefton for years. That meant not just shootings but, in several cases, scrambler and electric bike-riding thugs chasing after targets while wielding machetes. In 2016 a police investigation called Operation Hendon led to jail sentences for members who were busted following a 10-month undercover probe into the supply of heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and cannabis across Southport, Seaforth and Waterloo.

Among those jailed was Michael Foy, then a teenager, who was caught selling drugs to undercover officers under the alias Lil Wayne. He was jailed in January 2017, six months after the rest of the group was locked up, because he initially failed to attend court - sparking appeals for his whereabouts.

Geoffrey Lowe, prosecuting at the time, described Michael as being part of “a generic group of people called the Linacre Young Guns” - a gang that operated across Bootle and Seaforth and at the time was said to have come into conflict with the infamous Fernhill Gang.

The Fernhill Gang was notorious in Bootle first, then Netherton, as its leadership shifted in response to police action removing key members from the streets. Primarily a drugs and street gang, some associates had access to guns and power struggles broke out at both ends of its patch as it skirmished with the LYG and the Kirkdale-based Deli Mob.

Spates of shootings led to gang injunctions being handed out in 2015 but a major blow to the wider scene was struck by police soon after. As the Fernhill evolved, the police did with them, hitting its changing membership before a massive operation led to its leaders being caught and a swathe of their network being locked up for a combined total in excess of 100 years in 2016.

The removal of key figures whose crime was centred on the Hereford Drive estate allowed space for the KRS to grow and compete for power from its heartland on the other side of the Church Road dual carriageway. The KRS first gained notoriety in 2017 after they were said to have overrun a bar on South Road in Waterloo, effectively turning it into a base.

That venue was closed after police argued it was "being used by a local organised crime group". As it grew in influence, it came into conflict with others - including the LYG.

Shootings, arson attacks and gang injunctions

David McLachlan KC who prosecuted the Foys, set this rivalry as the backdrop to the events of April 7, 2020. He told Liverpool Crown Court: "Since January 2018, Merseyside Police have become aware of a conflict between two groups of young men from neighbouring districts in the South Sefton area. Some of them seem to identify themselves as members of rival gangs.

"On one side the Linacre Young Guns and the other the Kirkstone Riot Squad...That conflict has given rise to a series of violent events which, sadly, included the discharge of firearms in residential areas."

This was backed up by Inspector David Uren who, appearing as a witness, explained: “Over a number of years there has been a gang culture in South Sefton. Two of the most prominent gangs have been known as the Linacre Young Guns and Kirkstone Riot Squad.”

Members had been hit with gang injunctions to limit their activity, the court heard. Inspector Uren added the rivalry between the gangs had led to arson attacks, shootings and assaults between members. A link to two shootings that may have stemmed from the feud formed a key part of the murder trial.

Separate to the killing of Mikey, James Foy was accused of possessing a gun discovered in the drawer of a kitchen in Bootle in 2019. The 19-year-old was convicted by the same jury that saw through his denial of the murder after expert witnesses said they believed DNA found on the magazine, hammer, side grips and sights belonged to him.

That handgun, a Slovakian-made Grand Power K100, was not the weapon used to kill Mikey. But it had been fired on the streets of Sefton before - twice. The gun had been used in shootings on South Road - where the bar once dominated by the KRS was located - on May 7, 2019 and then in Elm Gardens in Seaforth on June 9.

No-one was injured in either attack and James Foy was not accused of having been the gunman responsible - three other DNA profiles were also recovered from the gun. Yet it showed he had access to a firearm long before he used one to commit murder.

The gun had been seized from the Longfield Road home of Carl Mercer after he called 999 himself to tell police about it. He claimed he was manipulated into minding it and when officers arrived he tried to get into their patrol car and begged to be arrested.

Mercer was jailed for six years over his possession of the gun and for a series of other offences. The gun in his kitchen having once been held by James Foy highlighted the symmetry of South Sefton gang crime: Mercer was one of the drugs gang members that Michael Foy had been jailed over his links to back in 2017.

The prison gun plot that targeted the LYG

James Foy's involvement in trouble did not end there. He was a target too. Six months before Mikey's murder he was the intended victim of a plot orchestrated from prison and supported by a thug linked to the KRS.

That carnage had begun with the shooting of Foy's associate Lewis Gubb on Markfield Road in Bootle on the night of September 21, 2019. An eyewitness walking her dog said the shots fired came from a van travelling along Stanley Road and CCTV captured a boy on a bike who the witness saw get up from the ground.

She told police: "He was against the side of the snooker hall. I heard him saying 'aargh, aargh' as though he was hurt. He was hobbling on one leg, trying to get his bike up off the floor." The woman gave a description of the male which matched that of Gubb, but the teen refused to cooperate with police - claiming he was "no victim". Judge Garrett Byrne concluded Gubb was indeed the victim of that attack, carried out by a man called Darren Russell.

He was arrested on other matters shortly after but, while on remand in Dovegate Prison in Staffordshire, he called his girlfriend on October 7. She informed him his dad had been shot at twice - supposedly by Linacre Young Gun members and claimed Gubb and James Foy were behind the attack. Neither have faced prosecution in relation to that allegation.

In response, Russell told her to contact a Merseyside gun thug with a reputation for carrying out shootings for a "big favour", adding: "One of them are gonna drop." The plot did not materialise because the gun-for-hire named by Russell was already in jail and the authorities were monitoring the calls.

Russell, of no fixed abode, admitted possessing the gun with intent to endanger life and encouraging or assisting offences and was jailed for 20 years, with an extended four years on licence. The shooting plot was representative of a number of themes within South Sefton's gangland. First, its recklessness. As well as the shot that hit Gubb, a second bullet entered a nearby home and hit a TV, narrowly missing the pensioner watching it.

Secondly, it highlighted the toxic level the feud between the LYG and KRS had reached. The gun used by Russell was supplied by KRS-linked Thomas Jennings. Jennings was described as an "armourer" and was jailed for seven years and eight months for his role. Finally, it showcased the chaos of the gang rivalry. Russell himself was not associated with the KRS. Instead, he was believed to have had connections down the other end of Stanley Road, towards Liverpool.

A fluid, complex and crowded gang scene

That complexity is a key feature of the South Sefton turmoil with rival gangs having members with fluid allegiances. Mikey was shot on Harrington Road in April 2020. There was a shooting on the same street on the eve of the Foys' murder trial. Yet while that sparked concerns it may have been an attempt to undermine proceedings, police did not believe it was linked.

On Easter Sunday, five days after Mikey was shot, the Rimrose Hope primary school building was hit by gunfire. CCTV from the site was useful for the investigators who pieced together James Foy's movements on the night he became a murderer, but confusion still reigns over how a school came to be struck by gunfire.

However, Merseyside Police fought back. A number of high profile operations took out some of the most dangerous individuals involved. The most notable was the work to rip out the heart of the Fernhill Gang despite being met with intense hostility as officers gathered evidence.

Other long-running investigations also stunned those involved and brought respite for those forced to endure their antics. Luke Walsh was jailed for a drugs operation that exploited the vulnerable and made £19,000-a-fortnight.

He led a network that peddled misery across South Sefton, targeting addicts in Seaforth, Litherland, Netherton and Bootle. Separate plots under his command concentrated on the sale of cocaine and cannabis, with drugs with a street value of up to £120,000 seized between June 2018 and July 2019.

Walsh, of Cumpsty Road in Litherland, was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs. Members of a £1m-a-year County Lines drug gang that peddled misery in Devon and Cornwall but whose most prominent figures were linked to Bootle received sentences totalling just under 150 years when they were jailed last year, while Operation Cicilian took out dealers operating around South Park, which lies between Stanley Road, Balliol Road and Hawthorne Road, in 2018.

In some cases, such as the emergence of the KRS in the power vacuum created when the Fernhill Gang was silenced, Merseyside Police is a victim of its own success. But tactics are developing as more and more work goes into consolidating its victories against gangland - with lessons being learned from significant victories elsewhere in the region.

Operation Lamprey, which tackles the exploitation of the vulnerable by drugs gangs in South Sefton, is one reflection of that. Criminals in the area are known to have adopted cuckooing - a tactic that sees the homes of addicts taken over as safe houses and dealing hubs. Lamprey, along with the work of the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership, is representative of the understanding deeper social issues can make people more susceptible to ruthless gang leaders.

Targeted searches, high visibility patrols and successful prosecutions

Operation Target boosted frontline work against knife and gun crime in the area by increasing disruption activity ranging from stop searches to roadside checks and open land searches. A Glock handgun, silencer and ammunition was found in one dramatic Seaforth raid.

Shootings also fell to the lowest level this century on Merseyside in 2020, in part due to the work of a new specialist police firearms unit. The reduction was felt in Sefton. Alongside that fall, crucially, the two shooting murders that shocked the borough in the early stages of the first pandemic lockdown have already been solved.

The Foy brothers were each handed life terms after being convicted of Mikey's murder - which James shamelessly admitted carrying out just minutes before he was sentenced. Speaking following the convictions, Detective Superintendent Richie Salter said: "From a firearms discharge point of view we have seen a pretty significant reduction.

"We finished 2020 with 10 for Sefton, which is a massive reduction on most recent years and a real positive. There have been some really good investigations into drug and firearms activity. There are not many people willing and able to pull the trigger in Sefton and so the more we can take out and prosecute the better."