'Fatal shooting was callous with children nearby'

"It's an absolute disgrace."

That was how veteran Merseyside Police investigator Det Ch Insp Cath Cummings summed up the fatal shooting of a 36-year-old father in Kirkby on 17 July last year.

The murder of Rikki Berry, targeted as he stood in the doorway of his family home on Quarryside Drive, was described as a "cold-blooded slaying" by a judge.

But it was also a shooting where stray bullets whistled into a house where a four-year-old girl and her older brother, 13, were inside playing.

Det Ch Insp Cummings spoke after the sentencing on Tuesday of gunman Michael Smith, as well as Adam Williams - who played the "leading role" by organising the shooting - and accomplice Connor Walsh after they were all convicted of Mr Berry's murder.

"It could have been much, much worse and unfortunately I've dealt with such investigations before." she said.

Just over two years earlier, Det Ch Insp Cummings and her colleagues had experienced one of the most challenging periods in the history of Merseyside Police.

Det Ch Insp Cath Cummings says the two children of Rikki Berry are traumatised by the things they saw on 17 July

Between August and December 2022, and following on from a 13-month period of no fatal shootings in Merseyside, two young women and a nine-year-old girl were all shot dead in separate incidents by bullets meant for someone else.

Det Ch Insp Cummings led the investigation that solved one of those cases, the murder of 28-year-old Ashley Dale in her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, by a man with a sub-machine gun hoping to kill her boyfriend.

That murder, on 21 August 2022, came less than 48 hours before the fatal shooting of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, aged nine, who was struck by a bullet fired through the front door of her home in Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot.

On Christmas Eve, a young drug dealer with a sub-machine gun opened fire on a pub in Wallasey, Wirral, wounding his gang rivals but killing 26-year-old bystander Elle Edwards.

Michael Smith, Adam Williams and Connor Walsh were told they had displayed "reckless arrogance similar to the lawlessness of the wild west"

Two years on, Det Ch Insp Cummings arrived at the scene of Mr Berry's shooting to see a child's pink bicycle lying in the front yard.

Inside the property on Quarryside Drive, investigators found a bullet had passed straight through a football trophy won by Mr Berry's 13-year-old son, through a PVC window and into the back garden.

Toys were scattered throughout the kitchen, where Mr Berry's partner Karlie Newhall had been doing her friend's hair.

Those features of the case "rang out", she said, after her involvement in the 2022 murders.

"It was just callous", the detective said. "This wasn't a case of just firing at a house or randomly - It was targeted at Rikki and could have been much, much worse.

"The CCTV showed the little girl's bike was out on the front and she could quite easily have still been out playing.

"It's just beyond words. It's unimaginable."

Rikki Berry was standing in the front door of his family home when he was struck by three bullets fired by Michael Smith

While the bullets that entered the house left no physical injuries to Mr Berry's children inside, they saw their fatally injured father lying on the kitchen floor.

A victim personal statement read in court written by Mr Berry's son was directed at his three killers, asking them: "How does it make you evil people feel that I have to watch my sister grow up without a dad?"

Ms Newhall described in her own statement how her younger daughter describes speaking to her "daddy" in her dreams.

Det Ch Insp Cummings added: "I don't think anyone can imagine the impact that this will have had on them.

"Seeing that happen to their dad and the comprehension of a four-year-old trying to understand why she won't see her daddy again."

The jury had heard the three killers plotted the shooting together.

Smith pulled up outside the house on an electric bike and fired a semi-automatic handgun at Mr Berry from close range, while Williams and Walsh travelled in convoy inside a Seat Ateca Cupra car.

No precise motive was established, the court heard.

Smith, 27, and Williams, 26, were both jailed for life with a minimum term of 31 years while Walsh, 26,was jailed for life with a minimum 30 years.