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The killing of a teenage boy sparked months of spiteful chaos that saw his family and friends targeted as they mourned.

The death of Daniel Gee-Jamieson, who was stabbed in a park ‘straightener’, should have been torment enough.

But the shameful antics of yobs haunted those who were close to the 16-year-old as they tried to come to terms with the tragedy.

Following the conclusion of court proceedings linked to Danny’s death, the ECHO can detail the full scale of abuse dished out in the aftermath.

The cocktail of thuggery included tributes to the amateur boxer being set on fire, scrambler bikes disrupting his funeral procession and threats by a hammer-wielding gang that have led to four children being prosecuted.

The ECHO can also reveal the “empathy” Danny’s mum feels towards her son’s killer.

While Mandy Jamieson said she could never forgive Owen Cousins she does believe the teen, like her son, was preyed on by ruthless bullies.

‘Halewood on lock arfff’

(Image: liverpool echo)

Danny was fatally wounded when Cousins thrust a lock knife at his thigh during a planned fight at The Nook, a field on the border of Gateacre and Belle Vale, in front of up to 30 youths on July 3 of last year.

His femoral artery slashed, he stumbled from the scene of the scrap only to collapse on nearby Belle Vale Road.

Moments later Mandy cradled him before he was rushed to hospital and later pronounced dead.

It was just the beginning of her hell.

As detectives launched a murder enquiry and forensics officers searched the scene of the stabbing a picture of a gang of boys emerged on the social media platform Instagram.

At least six boys, all dressed in dark clothing, are visible.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Several are making swearing gestures as they surround a boy positioned in the middle of the gang while he poses with a knife and sticks two fingers up.

Captioned “Halewood on lock arffff 6 man deep”, the picture is thought to show Cousins and several of his associates.

Mandy claims the image was sent direct to her just two hours after her son was killed.

Recalling the moment she received the picture, she said: “I was angry, I wanted to go kick something. It’s like they were laughing. Like his life meant nothing. It was awful.”

Yobs set fire to Danny’s picture as they trash tributes to teen

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

The image is thought to have been taken on the Loop Line, also known as the Ralla, which is the now pedestrianised railway line that can be accessed just metres from The Nook and links Belle Vale and Halewood.

At the time, police appealed for information about a group of teens who may have been responsible for the attack on Danny, or who had been with those responsible, seen running onto the Loop Line after the stabbing.

In the days that followed, Danny’s identity was made public and friends, family and strangers created a shrine in his memory on Belle Vale Road.

It featured floral bouquets, balloons, candles and pictures of the teen, who would have turned 18 this week had he still been alive.

That public display of affection for Danny was then trashed, with those behind the vandalism even setting fire to a picture of him.

Police labelled the act as “despicable” while Mandy, who salvaged the shrine and relocated it to her Belle Vale home, simply questioned how anyone could be that cruel.

‘This is war’: Gun gestures and scrambler bikes disrupt procession

The cruelty resurfaced again at Danny’s funeral when the procession was greeted by boys on pushbikes and scrambler bikes, some with their faces covered.

Mandy said: “There were three of them at the top of the road as the cars were pulling away from our home.

“They were smiling and waving. I wanted to jump out of the car but I couldn’t.

(Image: LIVERPOOL ECHO)

“The next thing all of the bikes were out and all of Danny’s friends were getting threatened.

“They were making gun signs and telling me I’m next.”

She added: “We had them outside saying ‘this is war’ and they said they were there [at the scene of the attack on Danny] but didn’t think Danny would die.

“To me that suggests it was premeditated.

“They were up and down outside the house trying to intimidate us, on pushbikes and motorbikes.”

‘You’re all f***ing rats’

The trouble outside Mandy’s home has since subsided.

But only after it flared elsewhere in Belle Vale and the surrounding area.

Last October a gang of boys created chaos when they turned up mob-handed - some armed - at a home while searching for a friend of Danny’s who witnessed the stabbing.

The confrontation that followed was captured on camera, footage from the incident showing the gang yelling threats and abuse at a south Liverpool family as they hunted for their target.

The yobs, all dressed in dark clothing and with hoods pulled over or around their faces, argued with those who had answered the door and neighbours attempting to defuse the trouble.

One was caught on video wielding a hammer while another was said to have a knife sharpener.

Trouble escalated further when Danny's friend emerged from the home.

He referenced the 16-year-old's death and screamed: "You're all f***ing rats."

He was met by appeals to: "Get in the park now" - likely to be a reference to the scene of the fatal attack on Danny.

‘A complete disregard for the court system, for police, for society really’

Four boys have since been found guilty of affray and witness intimidation over the incident.

All are under 18, meaning they can not be named due to legal restrictions, and were aged between 15 and 16 at the time.

Three were locked up, with one given a 12-month detention and training order, another a 12-month term and the third a 10-month sentence.

A fourth member of the gang was given a two-year Youth Referral Order, with a supervision activity requirement.

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He was also sentenced over trouble at Belle Vale Shopping Centre in November.

On that occasion he saw the family whose home was targeted in the October fracas, put his hood up and made threats towards them.

A fifth boy, just 14-years-old, admitted making threats during the incident and pleaded guilty to a public order offence. He will be sentenced this month.

Sentencing the other four, District Judge Jack McGarva said the yobs - several of whom were warned about their behaviour in court - knew the circumstances of Danny’s death when they hunted for his friend.

He said: "I find it breathtaking that you could then go to somebody's house who was a witness in the case, tooled up with weapons, only a matter of months after what happened.

“No lessons have been learned over that tragic incident and that concerns me greatly.

"The offences show a complete disregard for the court system, for police, for society really."

One boy dead, four in prison and five more criminal records

The witness intimidation case was the last of a series of court cases and prosecutions that had their roots in the killing of Danny.

The events of July 3, 2018 have taken a toll on Belle Vale and the surrounding community, leaving one boy dead, four boys in prison and another five boys with criminal records.

That includes boys on both side of the dispute.

While Danny went to The Nook unarmed, he attended with two friends prosecuted for being in possession of weapons that night.

(Image: Merseyside Police)

The boy who was later the target of the witness intimidation admitted possession of a hammer, for which he received a referral order.

A second friend of Danny’s was convicted of possession of a knife and sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order.

While giving evidence during Danny’s murder trial, that boy left the witness box and stormed the dock in an apparent bid to attack Cousins.

The move was the culmination of a heated session during a tense trial and ended with a courtroom slanging match that involved family members who had been in the public gallery.

The boy, who was covered in Danny’s blood as he fought to save his friend’s life, had earlier told a barrister: "Your voice is doing my head in - I feel like smashing your face in."

All he wanted to do was see his mum in peace

(Image: Merseyside Police)

Cousins, of Gateacre, was jailed for 11 years after jurors cleared him of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter.

His Liverpool Crown Court trial heard how the fight had been arranged by Danny and an associate of Cousins, with the pair exchanging messages via Instagram and text.

The fight was described as a “straightener” in the conversation between the two.

Witnesses on both sides of the dispute believed Danny contemplated the fight as a way of ending years of attacks on him by bullies.

Those incidents included Danny having his hair set on fire.

By the time of his death he was living with his dad in Kirkdale and feared being targeted whenever he returned to Belle Vale to see his mum.

While Danny fought Cousins, the trial heard claims the fight had been arranged by one of those who had bullied him.

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Danny’s friend - the pal targeted in the witness intimidation case - said Danny thought the "fistfight" would solve the "trouble through the years" and he could then visit his mum's home in peace.

He said: "He [Danny] wanted to have a fight with them and then leave it... his mum's is a place where they all go out.

"He doesn't want to go round there and get chased by them every single day.

"He wants to go round, see his mum, be happy with her, get along with the lads and just let onto them."

Danny’s killer may have been a victim of the same bullies

A friend of Danny’s killer said Cousins "was not a fighter" and was "acting weirdly all night and being quite secretive" ahead of the clash with younger but "physically bigger" Danny, who had recently taken up boxing.

He told police that when Danny met "nervous" Cousins on the field and asked "what's your beef then?" Cousins replied "I haven't got any beef".

Cousins himself told the jury he never bullied Danny, but said the boy who had helped set up the fight had boasted of picking on him.

He described the architect of the tragedy as the "alpha" of his group and said he would "threaten everyone around him to be scared of him," and made him fight Danny.

Cousins said the boy had previously bullied him, including taping him to a shopping trolley in one incident, a video of which was played in court.

The 17-year-old said this was the sort of thing the boy would think was a joke and then hold over him.

'His family can go see him, they can hug him. I can’t even smell Danny'

Cousins’ claims are a version of events Mandy believes may be true.

She believes the “alpha” teen - who received a referral order for attacking one of Danny’s friends with a claw hammer at the scene of the fight - was part of a gang that targeted and manipulated weaker children to do their bidding.

Mandy believes they tried - but failed - to do this with Danny, leading to their abuse of her son.

(Image: LIVERPOOL ECHO)

But she believes their tactics - of bullying other boys then accepting them into their pack - worked on Cousins, who the mum thinks was set up by his so-called friends.

Mandy told the ECHO: “I believe Owen was bullied by the boys. He then got brought into the gang and was obligated to him [the boy who set up the fight with Danny]. That’s how he does it, he goes for weaker, younger kids.

“He set the fight up. Owen was not a fighter, they went to watch Owen get battered.

“I will never forgive Owen, I have empathy for him because I saw what they did to Danny. But he still had a choice and he did what he did.

“He shouldn’t have been in the position he was in. But he shouldn’t have done what he did. His family can go see him, they can hug him. I can’t even smell mine. Mine’s in a box.”

'The damage that they have done to me and my family is just wrong and they don’t care'

Cousins’ barrister claimed Danny was armed with a knife during the fight that killed him, pointing out that Danny had a previous conviction for having a bladed article in public.

Jurors heard he was stopped by police in Judges Drive, Newsham Park, in September 2017 and told officers "I've got a knife in my man bag," adding: "It's for my own protection."

However, none of the five teenage witnesses - on both sides of the divide - said they saw Danny with a knife when he was fighting Cousins.

Mandy said: “Our Danny was never an angel but he stood his ground and not one of them would fight him one on one. They are like feral animals, like a pack.

“[At the time of his death] Danny was getting his life together.

“He got arrested at 17. I didn’t condone it. But he couldn’t even come down and see me without being jumped.

“All he wanted to do was see his mum and they wouldn’t let him do that. The damage that they have done to me and my family is just wrong and they don’t care.

“These kids don’t care... even with what happened to Owen. They think it is funny. Why aren’t their parents doing anything about it? You can’t force people to become parents at the end of the day but of these kids are trying to rule this community we cannot let them. They need a reality check.”

She hopes that reality check has been delivered now that three of the gang have been locked up over the witness intimidation.

Hoping to move on from the tragedy, she fought to celebrate what would have been Danny’s 18th birthday this week, writing on her Facebook page: “Happy 18th birthday Daniel. I am so proud to be your mama. I still miss you everyday and I doubt that will ever change.

“I made an 18th birthday video and decided to play one of Daniel’s songs that he used to wind us all up with constantly. We are going to celebrate his birthday today. No tears, only smiles today please.”

We need to teach children a different way to deal with things

Mandy is also determined to fight for change in Belle Vale. A vocal supporter of the city’s No More Knives campaign since the death of her son, she has launched plans to set up a community centre in the area.

This, she hopes, will offer opportunities for children to learn and socialise in a safe place.

Speaking to the ECHO when she announced her plans, Mandy said: "Kids need to know they are not on their own anymore and that there is help. The people working there will be genuine people with life experience, able to advise them and help them.

"We need to teach children a different way to deal with things. They don't need to sell drugs or be in a gang. They can do what they want to do, have their own opinions, have their own minds.

"We want to keep them safe, that's the main thing.

"In our area it's been quite bad recently so this needs to be done as soon as possible."