Comic booed off over Rhys joke

Rhys Jones was gunned down in Croxteth last month

A comic has been urged to abandon shows in Liverpool after being booed off stage for making a joke about Madeleine McCann and murdered Rhys Jones.

Up-and-coming comedian Dave Longley, 28, who hails from Derby, attacked the pair for wearing Everton FC shirts.

Longley's manager, Lee Martin, said the joke was a "stupid mistake" which he "greatly regrets".

Iain Christie, from Liverpool comedy club Rawhide, said the comic was unlikely to return in the near future.

The red-faced comic - who describes himself as "taking tricky issues to any audience" - was booed off stage.

According to a club worker he left the building "a shadow of his former self".

The whole place went silent and everyone was just looking at each other thinking: 'Did he actually just say that?' Alison Pritchard, audience member

PE teacher Alison Pritchard, 25, from Prescot, Merseyside, watched the show.

"He started off really funny and seemed confident," she said.

"Afterwards the whole place went silent and everyone was just looking at each other thinking: 'Did he actually just say that?'

"He went really red and started saying: 'It's just a joke' but someone shouted: 'Imagine if someone from Rhys's family was here'.

"Then people booed until he got off stage."

Longley, a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with TV projects in the pipeline, was in discussions with his manager and Liverpool's Rawhide venue where he is scheduled to play two gigs next month.

The search for Madeleine McCann continues

Mr Christie said: "You trust comics to make calls about what's funny and what isn't, he got it badly wrong."

He said: "We are talking to his agent this afternoon to see if he wants to go ahead with it.

"He made a serious error of judgment and it will be better for all concerned if he isn't playing Liverpool in the near future."

Rhys, 11, was murdered last month walking home from football training.

Madeleine, whose mother was born in Liverpool, went missing while on holiday in Portugal with her parents and has not been found since vanishing in May.

'Crossed boundaries'

Everton FC spokesman Ian Ross, who befriended Rhys's parents during appeals for information about the killer, said: "Having met Rhys's family, they are truly wonderful people going through an appalling experience and this man should be ashamed of himself.

"I certainly speak for every Everton fan in this city and probably all the Liverpool fans when I say they'd be eternally grateful if this man never performs in this city again.

"There are boundaries you never cross because of common decency and this man obviously knows nothing about common decency."

Longley's manager, Lee Martin, said: "Dave was having a great gig and got a little carried away.

"By his own admission he made a stupid mistake and greatly regrets the ill-chosen joke.

"He has made a donation to the fund."