Twenty years on, the killers of Lucy Hargreaves have not met justice

Dear readers — welcome, on a wet and windy start to the week, to your Monday edition. Some August this is turning out to be: Storm Floris is bearing down on the country, and the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for Liverpool. But not to worry: The Post is braving the gales to bring the latest headlines, cultural picks, and the big story to your inbox. But first…

Catch up and coming up:

• Over the weekend, Laurence published a brilliant piece on Liscard, Wallasey’s much maligned and underfunded retail sector that is currently undergoing a £12 million refurbishment. If you haven’t already, make sure you read it here. 

• Coming up this week, we unpick the situation in Hoylake, as protests outside a hotel where migrant families are being moved out have been taking place over the past week. Laurence has been heading down to the Kings Gap to find out how bad things might get.
• Then over the weekend, historian and archivist Thomas McGrath gives us a peak into the lives of Merseyside women in the 1950s. 

The big story: Twenty years on, Lucy Hargreaves’s killers are still at large.

Top line: The family of Lucy Hargreaves, the 22 year old mother shot in her Walton home in 2005, have made fresh appeals for information. The anniversary is a sad reminder of a much-missed mum and daughter.

Context: On the 3rd August, 2005 — twenty years ago yesterday — Lucy Hargreaves was asleep on her sofa in Lambourne Road, Walton. Her two year old daughter and the child’s father, Gary Campbell, were asleep upstairs. Three men burst into the home, and Lucy was shot three times with a sawn-off shotgun. 

The intruders then doused her duvet in petrol and set the house alight. Ignoring the cries of the toddler upstairs, the men then left. The child and Campbell survived by jumping from an upstairs window. Shortly afterwards a gold Lexus car with the registration NAD499 was found burnt out in Richard Kelly Drive in nearby Clubmoor.

In total, Merseyside Police have arrested 21 people over the course of their investigation, but nobody has yet been convicted.

Last month, Lucy should have been celebrating her 42nd birthday. Instead, her family and Merseyside Police have made fresh appeals to anyone with information about the Lexus, the men who then ran in the direction of Normandale Road, or anything that could lead authorities to Lucy’s killers. The family have also released a previously unseen photo of Lucy, taken at a college she attended. 

A caption accompanied the image on a wall at the college. It read: “I’m really enjoying the course. I want to work with computers in the future. Also, the creche being next door is great for me as a single mother as my two (eldest) children go there while I am training.”

In a statement, Lucy’s family said: "Over the past 20 years, people will have talked with family and friends. A number of people were contacted by males using a phone that was stolen, along with a vehicle used in Lucy's murder.

"The people who received those calls, along with others, could have information which could be crucial in achieving justice for Lucy, her parents, sister, children and all her extended family and friends.

"We appeal directly to them to please come forward. Now is the time."

The suspect: Although nobody has been convicted for Lucy’s murder, the police have long had a prime suspect: Kevin Thomas Parle, also known as Joseph Kenneth Parle, and nicknamed “Hemp” by his associates.

Described by the National Crime Agency as 6’5” with a stocky build and short-cropped ginger hair, Parle has now been on the run for two decades in connection with not one, but two deaths.

In 2004, Liam Kelly, 16, was shot on Grafton Street, Dingle, in the early hours of 19th June. Parle was arrested and questioned at the time, but later released on bail. Another man — Anthony Campbell — confessed to organising Liam’s shooting and was jailed but Parle has been sought in connection with the killing as well as Lucy’s. 

Regarding the crime on Lambourne Road, it’s thought that Gary Campbell, not his partner Lucy, was the intended target due to a feud going back to the 1990s. Unlike in the Grafton Street case, Parle was never apprehended and has evaded capture ever since, with sightings reported in Spain and Australia. 

Bottom line: Howard Rubbery, head of the Serious Case Review Unit, said: "It is now 20 years since Lucy was taken from her family in the most brutal of circumstances. [The suspects’] callous and reckless actions could have claimed the lives of two more people that night.

"We are as determined as ever to get justice for Lucy, whose death robbed her family of a loving mother and daughter.

"Time is no barrier to our pursuit of justice for Lucy and we appeal to anyone with any information, no matter how small it may seem, to contact us," Rubbery concluded. 

Anyone with information should contact the Merseyside Police social media desk via X @MerPolCC, on Facebook at Merseyside Police Contact Centre or through the website. Information can also be reported anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Photo of the week

We love this gorgeous film photo taken of St George’s Hall last week by Reddit user SnooSprouts2688. The image was taken on an Olympus OM2. 

Have a photo you want to submit to The Post? Email it to editor@livpost.co.uk for a chance to be featured in our Monday briefings.

Your Post briefing

The 74-year-old woman arrested at a pro-Palestine protest in Liverpool under terrorism laws has spoken out about her treatment and bail conditions. Audrey White was one of more than 100 people across the country detained on suspicion of supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action two weeks ago. She wrote on X of the “violence” and “humiliation” of her arrest and described her bail conditions, which prevent her from entering the city centre, as “prohibitive and draconian" due to her living in the city centre. Meanwhile, Liverpool Friends of Palestine, who have helped organise more than 80 demonstrations through the city centre since October 2023, released a statement calling for the proscription of Palestine Action to be lifted immediately and reiterating their opposition to IDF military actions in Gaza, which have been described as constituting a genocide by Israeli scholars and authors.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of inviting support for a banned terrorist organisation following a protest outside a hotel in Hoylake. Last week, protestors gathered outside the Kings Gap Hotel after Conservative and Reform councillors posted claims that asylum seekers would be housed in the premises. One woman at the front of the protest was wearing a "Free Tommy Robinson" t-shirt, while another held a sign reading "No More immigrants. We are full." A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said that a 25-year-old man from Sefton was arrested on suspicion of inviting support for a proscribed (banned) terrorist organisation. He remains in police custody.

And more strikes at Liverpool’s universities have been announced. Staff at Liverpool Hope University are set to strike for 10 days in September and October over planned job cuts, which the University and College Union (UCU) has described as "outrageous". The cuts include several departments, across education, social sciences and creative arts. A spokesperson for the university said it was "disappointed" by the industrial action and remained "committed to mitigate against compulsory redundancies where possible".

Post Picks

🍷On Tuesday, City Wine Bar hosts its regular Sip and Paint event, this time illustrating Claude Monet’s Bridge Over Giverny. Grab a ticket here.

🌻On Wednesday, Chain Lane Community Centre is running a fresh flower arranging workshop. For £3 per person, participants can enjoy nibbles and hot and cold refreshments throughout the workshop, as well as fresh flowers and foliage. Sign up here.

📖On Saturday, Liverpool-based book club Tongues of Stone launches its first ever magazine event at Artefact. It runs from 7pm to 10pm — more details here.

🍸Also on Saturday, Picante is running a margarita making workshop from 2pm to 3.30pm. Each guest will receive four cocktails, plus a plate of quesadillas to round off the afternoon. Grab a  ticket for that here. 

Open newsroom:

• If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@livpost.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.