A wannabe gangster rapper and a “monster” torturer were among five killers who subjected a dad-of-one to one of the most brutal killings Liverpool has ever seen. Joseph McKeever was interrogated by the crooks over £900,000 of missing cannabis after a drug importation went wrong.
But when the thugs didn’t get the answers they wanted, 54-year-old Mr McKeever suffered an ordeal too horrific to imagine and too depraved to describe in full.
Police discovered his battered body in the boot of a stolen Ford Focus, set ablaze on wasteland off Wyre Road in Everton. Mr McKeever, from Walton, had suffered two “shattered” kneecaps, broken eye sockets, brain damage, a crushed voice box and was strangled at least twice with a ligature.
The gangland thugs who filled his final hours with final hours with terror lacked a shred of humanity. They didn’t even punish the right man. And after painstaking work of detectives who eventually pieced together a grotesque killing, six men were removed from the streets of Liverpool for their roles in Mr McKeever’s sickening death.
Late on the evening of June 15, 2017, an electric blue Ford Focus ST was picked up on CCTV cameras heading towards Anfield. Just before 10.55pm it mounted a kerb on Wyre Road in Everton and drove onto a patch of wasteland behind St Domingo car park. Two minutes later, the stolen car was set ablaze.
When firefighters arrived, the arsonist had long gone. But after putting out the flames, inside its boot they made a horrific discovery – the battered and charred remains of a man’s body. Detectives soon learned this was not the first arson attack on a vehicle in Merseyside that day. Nor was it to be the last.
That afternoon, a silver Citroen Nemo van was ignited on Burtons Way, in Kirkby, just off junction six of the M57. Shortly after midnight, a black Renault Megane was found burned out in Newsham Park, in Fairfield. The man in the boot was Joseph McKeever. The Renault was his car. And the Citroen had been used to transport him to his death.
A murder investigation was launched immediately, but it was days before police were able to identify the victim as Mr McKeever. The heavy fire damage and horrifying nature of his injuries made identifying him a tragically complex task. Home Office pathologist Dr Paul Johnson attended the scene and found the body face up in the back of the car, accompanied by bloodstained clothing and trainers.
Dr Johnson concluded that the victim had been strangled at least twice and that this was one of his causes of death, along with a severe blunt force head injury, which had caused brain damage. He had suffered two broken kneecaps, “shattered” into pieces in a way the veteran pathologist said he had never encountered before and could have been caused with a hammer-like weapon. Dr Johnson also identified broken eye sockets, three broken ribs and a “chop” like wound to the victim’s jaw, which had removed bone.
The route cause of the torture could be traced back to a cannabis seizure in East Sussex. After the lorry, which claimed to be carrying vegetable produce, was stopped 150 kilos of Spanish cannabis was found in vacuum packed bags. Liverpool Crown Court heard the cannabis was imported by Mr McKeever and a business partner, James ‘Jimmy’ Doyle, who provided transport and logistics.
The intended customers were two men: crack cocaine and ecstasy dealer Lee Knox, then 40, and a young mechanic, then 21-year-old Jamie Grimes. For around a year, the two friends had been involved in the wholesale supply of cannabis in Merseyside. And there were healthy profits to be made. Some £900,000 of cannabis had failed to arrive on Merseyside and Knox wanted answers.
Knox and Grimes met McKeever at the Royal Oak pub in Walton on June 13 to establish where the cannabis was. They were joined by others including Anthony ‘Wiggy’ Wales, then 37, a convicted drug dealer and robber from Everton. At one point Mr McKeever was shown at the entrance of the pub hugging Knox and later with his hands “as if in prayer” to him.
The next day Knox, Mr McKeever and Mr Doyle drove down to Sutton Coldfield – the destination of the lorry stopped in Newhaven on the south coast. But after spending hours in the Birmingham area they returned empty handed. Knox would later tell jurors that both he and Mr McKeever thought Mr Doyle was acting weird, while the latter confided in him that he wanted to stop working with Mr Doyle.
Following attempts to speak with a solicitor to try and help source documents to prove their shipment had been seized, it appears Knox became suspicious and for whatever reason had decided Mr McKeever had taken the cannabis for his own use. Mr McKeever was lured to a green container at MGM Garages off Butler Street in Kensington.
He was last seen alive just before 6pm heading towards the container with Knox, Grimes and Wales. Less than two minutes later, Grimes was dispatched to collect something to tie Mr McKeever up with and a weapon to beat him. CCTV footage showed he went to the garage and returned with a long silver tool and black strapping. Mr McKeever was then tortured in a “remorseless attack” in the shipping container, before he was taken to a flat on Picton Crescent where he died in the early hours of June 15.
Across three separate trials, five people were found guilty of killing Mr McKeever.
Jamie Grimes
Grimes, then 21 and of Breckside Park in Anfield, was found guilty of murder at the first trial in February 2018. He admitted false imprisonment but denied murder. He told the court he and his business associate Knox struck a deal with Mr McKeever for the victim to import 50kg of cannabis from Spain.
Grimes told a trial he had repeatedly punched Mr McKeever and tied him up after he was patronising to him when asked about the missing load. However, he claimed the victim only had a black eye and could still talk and walk when he was taken to Picton Crescent.
CCTV showed Grimes collecting a tool and strapping after the victim was detained, gathering plastic sheeting and clearing out a van to transport him, which he reversed up to the container, then ensuring a faulty rear light was fixed, so they wouldn’t be stopped by the police.
It wasn’t suggested Grimes was involved in any violence at the flat, but after Mr McKeever died he returned to the garage and cleaned the container with oil, then tried to wipe CCTV footage, but failed. He and Knox fled Merseyside, driving south, and by 8.30pm boarded a Eurostar train to France. Grimes was arrested in Spain at the end of August 2017 and extradited. Grimes was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.
Karl Kelly
Kelly, then 32 and of Snaefell Avenue, Old Swan, was found guilty of false imprisonment and manslaughter at the first trial. During the first trial, Kelly suggested he was a mere “street dealer” and did not have any knowledge of the “missing load”. He claimed he agreed to a meeting at his friend Darren Colecozy’s flat and both of them had no idea the victim would be taken there.
Kelly said he earlier went to the garage in Brecon Street on June 14 merely to sell Knox £50 of cannabis. But Colecozy accused him of being a “fake friend” and a “high level” dealer, who knew full well about the drug importation scheme and brought a dying man to his home.
The court heard Kelly “a very expensive and rich life” and “travelled an enormous amount”, holidaying while on police bail. He claimed he only made “a couple of hundred pounds” a week from selling cannabis, but bought designer clothes from “a contact in Italy” and sold them on Instagram, which could rake in up to £10,000 a month.
Justice Davis said Kelly was a liar, who was clearly recruited to provide somewhere for Mr McKeever to be held, because Knox wouldn’t have called him to the garage to buy a small amount of cannabis. The judge said Kelly helped dispose of Mr McKeever’s body, then ditched one of his mobile phones and lied to police about not being aware of any death at the flat. Kelly was jailed for 22 years.
Darren Colecozy
Colecozy, then 23, from Wavertree, was a rapper who had made around 25 music videos under the name ‘Capz’. He was found guilty of false imprisonment and manslaughter at the first trial. He accepted being a cannabis dealer and using the Twitter alias Rayful Capz – a nod to notorious American cocaine kingpin Rayful Edmond.
Colecozy had been a promising footballer, who starred for Liverpool Schoolboys and was a youth player for Tranmere Rovers FC. But he was also responsible for “cowardly” bullying of an ex-girlfriend and threats against her gran, which led to a string of convictions.
The Manchester-born musician claimed Kelly brought Mr McKeever to his sparsely furnished flat – which he denied was a drugs den – without his consent. He suggested he and Kelly feared cocaine-fuelled Knox and Wales, who interrogated Mr McKeever, and that no violence took place in his property.
Colecozy and Kelly both donned gloves to extensively clean the flat after the victim died. Police later found the victim’s blood on kitchen walls, a microwave and on a mattress, which had seemingly been doused in petrol, in the living room. Colecozy said Knox discussed chopping up Mr McKeever and he talked them out of burning his flat down with petrol provided by Grimes.
Branding the other men “psychopaths”, Colecozy denied the suggestion that petrol had been used to torture Mr McKeever. Justice Davis said Colecozy knew he would be guarding Mr McKeever, adding: “He cannot have been an innocent dupe.”
The judge said: “They did nothing to help Mr McKeever. Why would they if they were simply making sure he did not do anything?” He said neither man was too scared and they both encouraged Knox and Wales in their attack. Justice Davis said Kelly’s account that Knox sent men to help remove the victim’s body was “not credible” and he or Colecozy arranged it.
He said: “They were responsible for the dreadful way in which Mr McKeever’s body was removed from the flat.” Justice Davis added: “They were involved directly in the heartless disposal of Mr McKeever’s body.” Colecozy was jailed for 22 years.
Anthony Wales
Wales pleaded guilty to the murder and false imprisonment of Joseph McKeever at a second trial in January 2019. Wales, then 37, from Everton, was one of the men who inflicted horrific injuries to Mr McKeever in the container. Knox described the convicted robber and drug dealer as a “hard case”, who he claimed was sent as a representative of the buyers of the drugs, and lost his temper with Mr McKeever after Mr Doyle didn’t turn up at the garage.
Knox branded Wales a “monster” and said he set upon the victim without any warning, punching him repeatedly and tying him up, then later beating his legs with a metal bar fetched by Grimes, and kicking him in the head. Knox denied that he was the man directing this cocaine-snorting “monster” and said he was “terrified” of Wales – even though he was shown on footage embracing him and sharing a beer together.
Knox claimed this was to try and get Wales on side, but prosecutors said Knox hired Wales to do his bidding as a “dog on a leash”. Wales helped transport the victim from the garage to Colecozy’s flat, where after relieving himself in the bathroom, he made the crucial mistake of leaving his DNA on the toilet.
It is claimed Mr McKeever earlier revealed that his business associate James Doyle had a unit at an industrial estate in Burscough, where cannabis might be found. Wales accompanied Knox and Grimes on a fruitless trip to West Lancashire in the dead of night, before returning to the flat, and is said to have been present when Mr McKeever died.
Wales was arrested and interviewed about the murder in August 2017. The dad-of-five made no comment to all questions and was not initially charged. However, after hearing the prosecution opening and seeing the evidence against him, he decided to plead guilty.
Justice Davis said Wales was recruited by others in “full knowledge” of what was to happen and took part in “ruthless” torture. Wales was jailed for life with a minimum of 24 years.
Lee Knox
Knox was found guilty of murder and false imprisonment at a third trial in January 2021. Prosecutors said Knox orchestrated the savage demise of Mr McKeever. The then 43-year-old, formerly of Canal View, Melling, escaped to Spain within hours of the killing and spent three years at large.
He was finally arrested in Belfast on April 25, 2020, where he had been living under the false name of Oliver Kennedy. Crying in court, he claimed he was a “terrified” witness to the violence and fought to save Mr McKeever’s life by giving him CPR.
The dad-of-two insisted he was “terrorised” alongside his “good friend” by cocaine-snorting Wales and fled the UK in fear. The self-confessed cannabis dealer said he worked for Mr McKeever and Mr Doyle, who were importing 150 kilos of the drug, and was to be paid £5,000 when it was delivered.
He said he believed Mr Doyle was responsible for a lorry not arriving in Liverpool, which prompted a hunt for the £900,000 cargo, which he tried to help with. Mr McKeever spent hours with Knox and others at the Royal Oak on June 13, where CCTV footage showed the victim with his hands “as if in prayer” to Knox.
Knox drove with the victim to MGM Garage and spent a total of three hours and eight minutes in the container with him, then accompanied Mr McKeever to the flat. There police discovered a cigarette stub, which revealed the DNA of both Knox and the victim. Knox’s fingerprints were also found in Mr McKeever’s blood on a kitchen wall.
When Knox gave evidence, he said Wales was a representative of the buyers of the drugs, who had become “suspicious”. He said he thought they were going in the container to talk, adding: “I was going to make everyone a cup of tea.” Knox put the blame on “monster” Wales and said he believed his friend Grimes was wrongly convicted.
When they went to the flat with Mr McKeever, Knox said he attempted to talk Wales out of violence but after drifting in and out of sleep woke to found the victim unresponsive. He said Wales eventually let him and Grimes go, but warned: “Keep your mouth shut or youse know what will happen.”
Knox denied minimising his role in the importation plot, being a drug “boss” who oversaw the murder, or having anything to do with clean up operations and disposing of the body. He said he didn’t go to police because his family would be at risk. Knox said: “I’m sorry I ran away, I’m sorry I never contacted the police, at that time I wasn’t thinking clearly, I had been through a night of hell, I had been terrorised along with Joseph.”
But the jury rejected his account and Judge Andrew Menary KC said Knox was responsible for the “merciless beating”. Knox was jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years.
Dylan Owen (convicted of assisting an offender)
Owen, then 23, was charged over the killing of Mr McKeever, but was found not guilty of false imprisonment, murder or manslaughter. The civil engineer, of Paul McCartney Way, Kensington, was however convicted for his role in setting fire to Mr McKeever’s black Renault Megane and murderer Grimes’ Citroen Nemo van in the wake of the killing.
The court heard he was a friend of Grimes, with “no real criminal background”, who spent a lot of time at the garage fixing motorbikes. He used petrol to destroy each vehicle, torching the Citroen on a field off the M57 and burning out the Megane in Newsham Park in Fairfield.
Justice Davis said: “He did all of that knowing full well the purpose was to cover up a murder in which his friend was involved.” The judge said he destroyed two vehicles “of considerable significance” to the murder and “went to some trouble to do so”.
Justice Davis added: “His family and a workmate have provided descriptions of his normal behaviour which was perfectly decent. None of that removes this offence of assisting an offender from the upper end of seriousness.” Owen was jailed for six years.
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