Viewers have said they were left “disgusted” by gang culture after watching a TV dramatisation of the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones.

ITV’s Little Boy Blue tells the story of the 11-year-old, who was gunned down by 16-year-old Sean Mercer on his way home from football practice in Croxteth, Liverpool, in 2007.

On Monday night the second instalment looked at the way the crime affected the community and showed how the parents of the youth who supplied the weapon even destroyed evidence for him.

Plenty of tweets suggested the programme was screened to young people to show them the reality of gang life.

Last week actress Sinead Keenan, who plays Rhys’s mother Melanie, won praise for harrowing scenes including one in which she held her son’s body as he lay bleeding on the ground.

She impressed viewers again in the latest instalment, with several fans saying her acting was “amazing”.

Taboo actor Stephen Graham plays Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly in the programme.

Stephen Graham
Stephen Graham (Ian West/PA)

The drama was written by Jeff Pope, executive producer of The Moorside, about the faked kidnapping of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews.