The mother of the teenage gunman who murdered schoolboy Rhys Jones has lost an appeal against her three-year jail sentence for perverting the course of justice.
Three judges in the Court of Appeal in London ruled that the punishment handed out to Janette Mercer at Liverpool Crown Court in April was not "manifestly excessive".
Mercer, 49, who admitted the charge, supported her gang member son Sean when he told police he owned a black and cream mountain bike, not the silver bicycle which was caught on CCTV being used by the gunman.
Rejecting her application for permission to appeal, Mr Justice Blair said that despite the mitigating factors in her case, "we are firmly of the view that the sentence was not manifestly excessive".
The crucial aspect of such a crime was that "the deception wholly undermines the due administration of justice and was intended to do so in this particular case".
He added that Mercer, of Shepherd Close, Croxteth, Liverpool, knew what she was doing at the time her son was a key suspect, knew the importance of the silver bike and knew that her son had told lies about it. He said she "backed him up with more lies".
Eleven-year-old Rhys was killed by stray gunfire as he was walking home from football practice across the forecourt of the Fir Tree public house in Croxteth Park on the evening of August 22 2007.
Rhys, the innocent victim of a gang war, died in his mother's arms a short time later.
The gunman's bicycle, carrying traces of Mercer's DNA, was eventually found abandoned at an industrial estate on the outskirts of Liverpool. It was a key part of the evidence during the teenager's trial.
Mercer, 18, was convicted in December of Rhys's murder and sentenced to life, with an order that he must serve a minimum of 22 years.
