The public schoolboy assassin: How a middle class hitman working for Liverpool’s deadliest gang is linked to shotgun murder of a suburban mother-of-three in her own home

Lucy Hargreaves was asleep on her living room sofa when three men burst in and blasted her with a sawn-off shotgun.

Ignoring the cries of her two-year-old daughter, they then doused her home, in the Liverpool suburb of Walton, with petrol and set it alight, forcing her partner Gary Campbell to escape through an upstairs window with the toddler in his arms.

Mr Campbell broke back into the house in a frantic attempt to rescue his 22-year-old girlfriend, but the mother-of-three was already dead.

The crime, which took place in the early hours of August 3, 2005, remains unsolved and even by the bloody standards of gangland Liverpool, the murder stands out for its breathtaking brutality.

So will Lucy Hargreaves’s family ever see justice done?

After two men put on trial for murder had the charges dropped due to insufficient evidence, police efforts are now focused on tracking down the fugitive prime suspect, Kevin Parle.

Parle was originally arrested on suspicion of murder before skipping bail. Reports have linked the 6ft 5in, privately educated gangster to Spain, Australia and Dubai. Yet with no confirmed sightings, his whereabouts remain a mystery.

As the hunt for Parle continues more than two decades on, new information has emerged about the 45-year-old’s former gangland associations in Liverpool.

Based on conversations with multiple sources, the Daily Mail understands Parle was a member of a group that committed acts of violence on the orders of local drug kingpins. They included the Huyton Firm, an infamous gang behind a string of murders and punishment attacks spanning decades.

Far from being mere background details, some believe these past associations could be key to solving the mystery of where Parle ended up – and his possible fate.

While most Liverpool gangsters hail from tough neighbourhoods mired by poverty, Parle grew up in the middle-class suburb of Mossley Hill and attended Liverpool College, then a £15k-a-year private school.

Despite his comfortable background, the youngster became involved with a violent firm of Liverpool FC football hooligans known as ‘The Urchins’ before drifting into more serious crime.

It is not clear how Parle was recruited, but sources have suggested he likely came to the attention of a local criminal called Kirk Bradley, who had grown up in nearby Netherley and had strong underworld connections across south Liverpool.

A vicious character, Bradley specialised in contract violence, operating alongside his equally sadistic ‘blood brother’, Tony Downes.

The pair were among 21 people arrested over Lucy Hargreaves’ shooting and in 2007 went on trial for her murder at Liverpool Crown Court.

Jurors heard how Ms Hargreaves – who had no connections to crime – may have been the victim of an attempted hit on her partner Gary, who was accused of being a passenger in a car which killed Downes’ three-year-old brother Kevin in 1993.

Downes and Bradley were acquitted halfway through the case after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed, with the thugs ‘whooping’ as they walked free.

Parle was named by prosecutors as the third man who was present inside the house and remains wanted for the murder of Ms Hargreaves and a second victim, 16-year-old Liam Kelly, who was shot dead in the street in 2004 over a drug debt.

Following their acquittal, Downes and Bradley continued acting as enforcers for drug gangs, including the Huyton Firm.

The gang takes its name from the area of Liverpool where it was founded in the 1990s. Run by brothers Vincent and Francis Coggins, it evolved into one of Britain’s most feared organised crime groups, aided by a reputation for extreme violence.

Between 2009 and 2010, the Huyton Firm recruited Downes and Bradley to lead a terror campaign against its enemies that saw them carry out 20 attacks across Merseyside.

Seven of these incidents involved grenades, one of which was left outside the home of former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish.

Downes and Bradley were both jailed for life over the attacks, and the fact they were working for the Huyton Firm has long been in the public domain.

But the Mail has now heard of an earlier connection between the pair and the Huyton Firm that, crucially, also involves Parle.

According to sources in Liverpool, Parle was working together as part of a group of guns for hire in the years leading up to Ms Hargreaves’ murder.

Their loose association was described as more of a ‘mob of scallies’ than an organised gang, yet they are said to have still received contracts from more powerful crime groups, including the Huyton Firm.

If these assertions are correct, Parle was linked to the Huyton Firm in the lead-up to Ms Hargreaves murder. Both the Coggins brothers received lengthy jail terms last year, but sources believe the gang remains active under new leadership.

So could the Huyton Firm have played a role in helping Parle evade the authorities for all this time?

The official line from Merseyside Police is that Parle is living overseas and some reports suggest he fled to Western Australia, where he has relatives. Others claim he has been living in Dubai, the Canary Islands or Thailand.

He remains on the Most Wanted list run by the National Crime Agency, which has a strong track record of catching dangerous fugitives living overseas.

Amid the swirling rumours and speculation, all informed observers can agree on one thing: if Parle remains at large, he will be drawing on some kind of outside support.

Fugitives need an endless supply of money because regular jobs increase the chances of being identified.

‘Paid work is risky because you are mixing with regular people who will dob you in,’ said one man with experience of organised crime.

‘The only way really is to stay in an apartment all day and bob out at night. You can’t trust anyone. One drink too many, one word too many, and the game is over.’

This raises an obvious question. Even if he had significant support, could Parle really have been able not only to dodge police for 20 years – but not be seen even once during all this time?

Unsurprisingly, this has led many on Merseyside to conclude he is already dead.

There is currently no information implicating the Huyton Firm in Ms Hargreaves’ murder. But several sources told the Mail the group feared Parle could share information about other crimes he had carried out for them to police, with its senior leadership suspecting his middle-class background made him more likely to flip.

As a result, the gang had him murdered in Spain, they claim.

One man, who agreed to be quoted but not named, said: ‘I was told they bumped him off shortly after Lucy’s murder. I was told that Parle ”had to go and that was it”.’

A second man, who knew Downes and Bradley in the past, suggested financial considerations could have been on the minds of the Huyton Firm’s bosses.

‘The higher ups had a choice – get rid of him now or finance him for the rest of his life. I think something happened to him a very long time ago.’

Even so, the search for Parle remains active and Merseyside Police continue to ask for information, including among former allies of Parle whose ‘loyalties’ may have changed.

In four months’ time, on July 7, Lucy Hargreaves should have been celebrating her 43rd birthday.

Instead, her family will mark yet another year without her – with justice seemingly further away than ever.

• Anyone who has information on Kevin Parle’s location, or Lucy Hargreaves and Liam Kelly’s murders, can contact Merseyside Police’s social media desk via X @MerPolCC or on Facebook by searching the ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’. You can also report information via the force’s website, by calling 101 or contacting the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.