The 20-year-hunt for double murder fugitive Kevin Parle | UK News

For 20 years, detectives have hunted a 6ft 5ins (1.9m) suspected killer linked to two gunpoint executions.

But police have not laid eyes on Kevin Parle – known as ‘Hemp’ or ‘Joseph’ – since 2004 – despite reports linking him to Spain, Australia and Dubai.

The privately-educated Liverpool man described as white, of broad build with ginger hair, blue eyes and a small scar on the left side of his head, is considered one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives.

Despite high profile campaigns – including a billboard being driven around Spain featuring Parle’s face – cash rewards, media coverage and true-crime podcasts – no credible leads have emerged.

The murders Parle is wanted in connection with were both considered “cold blooded executions” by detectives and involved shotgun blasts at close range.

On 3 August 2005, Lucy Hargreaves, a 22-year-old mother of three, was asleep under a duvet on her couch when three men burst through the front door of her home in Walton, Liverpool.

Within seconds Ms Hargreaves had been shot three times with a sawn-off shotgun.

The killers then poured petrol around the bottom of the stairs and doorway at the property, on Lambourne Road, and set it alight, despite the cries of her two-year-old daughter upstairs.

Her partner, Gary Campbell, was in bed with the toddler at the time and was forced to climb out of a window with his daughter to escape.

Mr Campbell left the terrified child with a neighbour and went back to try and rescue Ms Hargreaves, but she had already died from her wounds.

By that time, Parle was already a prime suspect in the murder of a 16-year-old boy – Liam Kelly – who was ambushed in Dingle on 19 June 2004 after a row over a £200 drug debt.

Two men had approached him from different directions on Grafton Street, but one opened fire with a shotgun striking him in the chest and arm as he tried to escape into a nearby house.

Parle was arrested on suspicion of that murder by Merseyside Police, but was released on bail – which he never answered – and fled overseas.

Other men were charged over both murders, and in both cases the prosecution named Parle as the missing suspect in open court.

In 2007 notorious organised criminals Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley, both from the Huyton area, went on trial for Ms Hargreaves’ murder at Liverpool Crown Court.

Their trial heard how in 1993 Ms Hargreaves then teenage partner, Mr Campbell, had been the passenger in a stolen car which struck and killed Downes’ four-year-old brother, Kevin Downes.

Prosecutors had claimed Mr Campbell, who was in the bedroom upstairs, was the intended target in a plan motivated by revenge.

In court Parle was named as the alleged third man involved in the attack.

But by December both Downes and Bradley had been cleared on the direction of a judge who ruled they had no case to answer, and they were released.

However Downes and Bradley are now both serving lengthy prison sentences for unrelated offences linked to high level organised crime – including shootings and a plot which saw a grenade left outside the home of former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish.

In Liam Kelly’s case, a then 22-year-old man called Anthony Campbell (no relation to Gary Campbell), pleaded guilty to arranging the shooting.

In court Parle was described as the gunman.

The hunt for Parle, who would now be 45, carries a £10,000 reward from the charity Crimestoppers – which considers him one of the UK’s most wanted fugitives.

Gary Murray, Crimestoppers’ North West regional manager, said: “We know there are people who may know where Kevin Parle is.

“It’s time to do the right thing.

“Our guarantee of anonymity means you will never be identified by anyone, and your information could help bring justice and solace to those who have suffered for the last 20 years.”