THE mother of murdered teenager Rhys Butler said her son’s killer has taken two lives – Rhys’ and her own.
And after watching Ian Broughton being sentenced to life imprisonment at Chester Crown Court, she said: “I hope he rots in hell.”
Tina Butler, 41, from Speke, told The Chronicle: “He has taken everything from me. No amount of jail time will bring back my son.
“Broughton is a sly and devious person who took a child’s life for a small amount of drugs, which he would have got through in a matter of hours.”
Rhys, 17, began selling heroin and crack after being recruited by a Merseyside gang who sent him to Northwich to “learn the ropes”.
On May 27 last year, Broughton ambushed him and brutally murdered him in a pre-planned attack. The court heard he told an associate: “If I’m going to do it I’ll do it so he can’t remember who done it.”
Heroin addict Broughton, 28, later bragged to a cell-mate he had killed the Liverpool FC fan, describing the first hammer blow he landed on Rhys from behind as “a good smack”.
DCI Paul Rumney said: “Rhys Butler was a vulnerable youth who foolishly agreed to deal drugs. He was impressionable and attracted by the perceived wealth drug dealing might bring.
“His vulnerabilities were exploited by Broughton, an older, violent and intimidating drug user who capitalised on Rhys’s naivety.”
Mrs Butler added: “Had he just hit Rhys and robbed him, it would have been the best thing for my son because it would have scared him away from what he was doing.
“But it was a cold calculated murder and he has shown us no remorse or feeling. It wasn’t just Rhys’ life he took, it was mine too.”
Jayne Sharp, who lived at the Peckforton Way flat where Rhys’ battered body was found, was jailed for three years.
The 30-year-old, a fellow drug addict, admitted two offences of being concerned in the supply of heroin, two of being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, and two of permitting her home to be used to produce class A drugs.
