BRIT cops have been hunting one of Britain’s most wanted men for 20 years – and one retired detective has made it his mission to track him down.
Kevin Parle is the 6ft 5in suspect in the shotgun executions of a mum-of-three and a 16-year-old boy.
Now 45, he is described as white, of broad build, with ginger hair, blue eyes, and a scar of the left side of his head.
High profile campaigns spanning from Spain, to Australia, to Dubai have not flushed him out.
Cash rewards have been offered – and his face has been plastered on Billboards.
But the families of Lucy Hargreaves, 22, and Liam Kelly, 16, are still desperate for answers.
Lucy was killed when three men burst through the front door of her home in Walton, Liverpool, shooting her three times with a sawn-off shotgun on August 3, 2005.
And meanwhile, Liam was ambushed in Dingle after a row over a £200 drug debt – also being killed with a shotgun in on June 19, 2004.
Parle was arrested over the boy’s murder – but then was released on bail and fled overseas.
And the hunt has been on every since.
Retired Met detective Peter Bleksley has spent years tracking him – racking up a £50k bill.
He has followed leads across the world in his hunt for Parle.
The two brutal killings – are considered “cold blooded executions” and involved shotgun blasts at close range.
“It literally swallowed up my life, morning, noon and night for four years,” Mr Bleksley told The Sun.
He says a couple of years ago he handed Merseyside Police a huge dossier of evidence showing where Parle could be – but claims the force has brushed him off, considering the alleged killer dead.
Mr Bleksley said: “They weren’t really looking for him and you’re not going to find him unless you look… they’ll just play lip service to it.”
He said he gave the force a “very detailed intelligence package” and even put on a 135-slide presentation lasting two hours, but “they did nothing with it”.
He added: “Until it’s proven that he is dead, I’ll work on the theory that he’s alive.”
In 2022, just after a Covid lockdown, the ex-cop was in Costa Blanca, Spain, following up on intelligence reports, when a huge “convoy of large powerful SUVs came tearing past” his car on an otherwise deserted side street.
Mr Bleksley, who had been knocking on doors on a plush estate built around a golf course, says 10 days later he received a call from an anonymous source saying “somebody had tipped him off”.
Kevin Parle should’ve been a household name, everybody should’ve known about him and his [alleged] crimes
Bleksley
He believes Parle is being protected by underworld figures.
“What would you do if you were negotiating an illegal business deal with some villains and Kevin Parle popped up?,” he said.
“Would you try and steal their money or sell them counterfeit drugs – or would you do the deal properly?”
Mr Bleksley had just finished his Channel 4 show Hunted and was looking for a new project when he decided to turn his interest in Parle into a BBC podcast.
Alongside his small team, often consisting of just him and his podcast editor, and with initial funding from the Beeb and an advance for a book, Mr Bleksley travelled to Liverpool, as well Ireland, Spain and Dubai in his hunt, sometimes encountering extremely shady characters.
“Bear in mind I don’t have a warrant card, I don’t have a gun anymore, I don’t have handcuffs, I went everywhere trying to find him as a podcaster, not as a policeman,” he said.
Mr Bleksley says it’s all about bringing justice to the victims and their families – and he was left continuously frustrated by Merseyside Police, as well as the National Crime Agency, which lists Parle as one of its most wanted fugitives.
Referring to the fugitive, he said: “Kevin Parle should’ve been a household name, everybody should’ve known about him and his [alleged] crimes, and it’s a deep, deep shame on Merseyside Police and the NCA that he wasn’t.
“So I set out to try and get Kevin Parle’s name out to people who’ve never heard his name before. I was doing law enforcement’s job for them in many regards.”
Asked about any hair-raising moments during his hunt, he said: “I met some very interesting characters.”
He went on to say: “Not long after the hunt had started somebody posted a picture of my house and a description of the bedroom I sleep in on social media.
“My home where I live with my family… My house is like a fortress and if they did [try and attack him] I’d batter the s*** out of them,” Mr Bleksley said.
He recalls being in a bar in Spain at one stage in which the patrons “tried to run us out”, adding: “We didn’t run, we walked, we weren’t going to run from anybody.
Murders of Lucy Hargreaves and Liam Kelly
WANTED fugitive Kevin Parle is suspected of murdering two people 20 years ago.
Liam Kelly, 16, was shot in the chest with a shotgun as he got out of a friend’s Vauxhall Astra in Toxteth, Liverpool, in the early hours of June 19 2004.
The teenager is thought to have been killed over a £200 drug debt with Anthony Campbell who would later plead guilty to arranging the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Peter Sinclair also admitted to assisting the alleged gunman, Parle, by disposing of two mobile phones and kept look-out while he burned clothing.
In the hours prior to his death, it’s understood Liam drove round to Campbell’s aunt’s house and threw a bicycle through a front window.
Lucy Hargreaves, 22, meanwhile, was gunned down by masked gunmen as she slept on a sofa in her home in Walton, Merseyside, as her toddler and partner slept upstairs on August 3 2005.
The mum-of-three’s home was then torched and her partner Gary Campbell – believed to have been the intended target – escaped with the tot through an upstairs window.
Shortly after the incident, a gold Lexus car, registration NAD499, was found burnt out in nearby Clubmoor.
A total of 21 people have been arrested in connection with the investigation into Lucy’s murder but nobody has ever been convicted.
Parle was arrested and questioned by cops, but while on bail, he fled to Alicante, Spain, following the second killing and remains on Britain’s most wanted list in connection with both murders.
“We faced hostility in a lot of the places we went to but we also met some lovely people who wanted to see Kevin Parle in handcuffs.”
In Dubai, Mr Bleksley said he had to keep a much lower profile.
“I had no dealings with Dubai law enforcement,” he said. “I wanted to be there under the radar. It was very difficult, people quickly became very suspicious because we were asking questions.
“In the end, we placed ourselves in self-imposed house arrest in the hotel and got out of there as quickly as we bloody well could.”
Asked about how such a fugitive as Parle, if he is alive, has been able to stay hidden for so long, Mr Bleksley said: “The illegal drugs industry is the fourth biggest industry in the world.
“It’s bigger than the textiles industry… They’ve got plenty of resources.
“Violence is a currency, fear is a currency, it keeps people quiet.”
The NCA’s most wanted fugitives
- Jack Mayle, is wanted on suspicion of the supply of MDMA, methy
- John James Jones, wanted for wounding with intent
- Callum Michael Allan, wanted for 12 alleged offences including possession with intent to supply Class A drugs
- Daniel Dugic, suspected of being involved in a conspiracy to import 225kg of cocaine into the UK in 2011
- Derek McGraw Ferguson, wanted in connection with the 2007 murder of Thomas Cameron in Glasgow
- Allan Foster, alleged to have murdered David ‘Noddy’ Rice in South Shields in 2006 along with being wanted for other offences relating to drugs and jewellery theft
- Kevin Thomas Parle, is wanted in connection to two murders in Liverpool in 2004 and 2005
- Fatah Benlaredj, wanted for the rape of a seven-year-old girl in 2007
- Shashi Dhar Sahnan, is accused of being involved in the importation of heroin
- John Barton, convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in his absence for conspiring to import heroin
- Rezgar Zengana, convicted of the rape of a 25 year old woman
- Osman Aydeniz, waned in connection with conspiracy to supply diamorphine
- Ozgur Demir, wanted in connection with conspiracy to supply diamorphine
- Ersin Mustafa, believed to have been involved in insider dealing
- Christakis Philippou, involved in a travel agency fraud which defrauded 20,000 people in the early 2000s selling cut-price holidays
- Timur Mehmet, convicted of fraud and sentenced to eight years
- Mehmet Salih, accused of being involved in a conspiracy to supply cocaine
- Shazad Ghafoor, wanted on suspicions of fraud, dangerous driving, possession of criminal property, possession of cannabis with intent to supply, failure to surrender to bail
- Jonathon Kelly, wanted to be recalled to prison to serve the rest of his 10-year sentence after he ran while out on licence in 2014 – his violent crimes include paralysing one of his victims by stabbing them with a machete
Despite Merseyside Police publicly stating they believe Parle to be dead, Mr Bleksley says much of his tip-offs have come from “courageous” current and ex-cops within the force who very much agree he’s alive.
“They want to see Kevin Parle in handcuffs as much as I do,” he added.
Mr Bleksley said one such retired officer contacted him when he was “really actively hunting” Parle and “wished me all the best – and said I did my 30 years, I worked very hard, locked up a lot of murderers… but the one blot on the landscape of my retirement is that Kevin Parle is out there”.
Mr Bleksley believes lack of resources and funding may be the real issue as to why there appears to be little movement in actually tracking down the suspected murderer – or at least confirming he is no longer alive.
“I’d exhausted every possible avenue, apart from Australia because we didn’t have enough money to go out there,” he added.
There have been reports of possible sightings of Parle previously living Down Under.
Mr Bleksley recalled interviewing Lucy Hargreaves’ partner Gary Campbell on many occasions over the years.
“He was in the house when they burst in and shot Lucy dead and then set fire to the house,” he said.
“He had to jump out of the top window with his young daughter in his arms.
“He remains a very damaged man. But it was for him and for Lucy and Liam that I did it.”
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said: “The NCA’s most wanted list is made up of fugitives from across UK law enforcement.
“We regularly work with police forces and overseas partners to arrest and return individuals to face justice in the UK.”
The Sun has approached Merseyside Police for comment.
Why many of the most wanted fugitives will never see justice
MANY of Britain’s most wanted fugitives will never see justice, according to a former top cop.
Ex-Met detective Peter Bleksley – who has spent years hunting AWOL double murder suspect Kevin Parle – says lack of funding, resources and motivation are behind the stalemate.
He told The Sun: “Virtually any crime can be solved and any fugitive can be found, but it all depends on the resources you put to it and the determination you have to find them.”
The majority of the 19 people listed by the government’s National Crime Agency (NCA) are involved in drugs offences, while Parle is the only one wanted for multiple murders.
Mr Bleksley said the most wanted list is made up of the “big headline grabbing fugitives” – but it doesn’t necessarily paint a clear picture of the extent of unsolved major crimes in the UK.
“They often like the ones that have committed crimes here and decamped to the Costa Del Sol or Costa Brava – and they love bringing them back in handcuffs and seeing all the pictures,” he continued.
“The harsh reality is, there are so many thousands of people wanted now in the UK, firstly for very serious crimes, then for mistakenly being released from prison, then for not returning to prison from home leave, then for even non-payment of fines, then for non-compliance with criminal orders.”
He said the lack of old-fashioned resources in British policing has led to the likes of facial recognition technology being introduced “more and more”.
“It helps scoop up people for very little resources – put a camera on a high street, get a ping and a fugitive can be lifted quickly – but what about the more complicated villains, being protected?” he said.
“It’s a huge problem, there’s not the resources for detecting wanted people like there should be.”
Mr Bleksley previously told The Sun evil killer Roy Barclay – who was on Suffolk Police’s list of most wanted criminals – but had been able to avoid being recalled to prison for two years before murdering defenceless Anita Rose in Brantham last July – could easily have been caught beforehand.
He had been jailed in 2015 for the violent, unprovoked assault on 82-year-old Leslie Gunfield in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, before being released on parole in 2020 – but preached his licencing conditions by failing to remain at a fixed address.
Despite his nomadic existence, Barclay left a sizeable digital footprint, including using his bank card to order items online, and leaving hundreds of reviews on Google Maps, showing he was in Suffolk and Essex.
“He clearly should have been a priority,” Mr Bleksley said.
The ex-cop said many serious criminals like Barclay are brushed under the carpet, and the cases are imputed onto police systems only for the “folder to be left gathering dust in the hope the person will be eventually picked up for another offence” – preferably under a different policing area.
“That’s the harsh reality,” he said.
Referring to his own four-year hunt for Parle, he said Merseyside Police and the NCA continuously fobbed him off, despite providing large amounts of evidence as to the fugitive’s whereabouts, with him having been on the run since 2005.
“It comes down to resources, the NCA have got an awful lot of work on their plate, do they have the resources to dedicate a specialist team full time, 24/7, 365 days a year to hunt for these fugitives?
“A simple question to the NCA would answer that, wouldn’t it?”
Asked whether police officers today are potentially scared to tread the shady paths that he has – including as an undercover detective during his career, but now during his hunt for Parle, he said: “Who knows, I sincerely hope not because my colleagues were never afraid of anyone or anything.”
He went on to say: “New Scotland Yard used to have a glittering reputation.
“You only had to pick up the phone and say you were a SY detective and you got what you wanted, generally speaking, wherever in the world that might have been. It’s reputation these days are in tatters.”
But he said that’s not to say no such long-term fugitives will ever be caught.
“They’ll catch some of them. You can catch any of them, you’ve just got to deploy the resources.
“It’s like any crime, you can solve any crime.
“A person has their phone snatched in London, and didn’t see the person, you can still solve it if you form a dedicated squad.
“You can solve any crime or catch any fugitive if you’re willing to put the right resources to it.”
And he said despite the difficult circumstances, there are many brilliant cops working in the UK today – with many serving officers being among those who tipped him off about Parle.
“A number of courageous sources from Merseyside Police contacted me and were fully supportive of what I was doing,” he said.
“A number of people either serving or retired contacted me and were extremely supportive of what I was doing. They wanted to see Kevin Parle in handcuffs as much as I did.”
