Liverpool-born Paul Parker was shot dead during a fight in the Netherlands earlier this year
Dutch media named Liverpool man Paul Parker, who was killed in June this year, as the man suspected of two murders in Amsterdam
Two men accused of murdering a Liverpool gangster in the Netherlands have been given extra security following an “assassination threat” from England. Liverpool-born Paul Parker, 52, died on June 1 after he was shot during a fight in the Dutch city of Heerhugowaard.
Parker had entered a garage armed with a knife allegedly trying to collect a debt when he was fatally shot. Murder suspects René S, 65, and John S, 44 – whose full surnames are not disclosed because of Dutch privacy laws, despite the fact legal matters are underway – are being held in protective custody following reports an assassin had been allegedly sent to “liquidate” them.
The first reports of the alleged threat are said to have emerged when the two men were being treated in hospital for serious injuries sustained during the fight with Parker. Dutch media outlet NH Nieuws reported that the two suspects are in solitary confinement under special security measures that require them to receive visitors away from the main prison area.
During the first preliminary court hearing on Monday, René S’s lawyer spoke about the threat. John S’s lawyer later confirmed to NH that his client’s family and he himself were also subjected to threats. The information regarding the threat had been passed onto Dutch law enforcement from British police, it was reported.
The threat was also a concern when police took the suspects and their legal teams back to the scene of the alleged murder to make a video reconstruction of the incident. Pictures seen by the ECHO showed a large police presence at the scene and a black barrier pulled across the front of the business entrance.
It was reported that Dutch police have since informed the two suspects’ legal teams that the threat against their clients was no longer considered active.
But John S’s lawyer told the hearing: “We were given absolutely no explanation as to how or why. It’s quite a coincidence that, just a few days before the hearing, all the threats have simply vanished. It’s completely implausible.”
Dutch media initially reported that Parker had been stabbed to death, but an inquest that opened in Liverpool in June heard the cause of death was listed as a gunshot wound. He was identified through his fingerprints.
Anita Bhardwaj, senior coroner for Sefton, St Helens and Knowsley, confirmed that whilst in the Netherlands Parker was “believed to have been in an altercation involving weapons that led to his death”. She added that because of the unnatural nature of his death a formal inquest would be required.
Ms Bhardwaj, sitting at Bootle Town Hall, listed further proceedings on December 18 this year for “review or conclusion depending on what information we have on that occasion”. The coroner earlier confirmed they were awaiting an ongoing investigation in the Netherlands.
At the time of his death, Parker was wanted over the murder of Dutchman Pieter Hoovers, 62, and his partner, Tae Kawepanya, 32. The couple, who were living in Thailand, had returned to Amsterdam on holiday when they were ambushed inside a flat.
He was never arrested in connection with the offences, but an Amsterdam cold case team released information in May 2024 that the couple had probably been killed by a “British criminal“.
CCTV footage released as part of the police investigation showed the suspect three times on the day of the murders. Investigators said the gunman was dropped off at the murder scene in different cars each time.
The working assumption was that Mr Hoovers and Ms Kawepanya were not home during the suspect’s first visit so he had to return to finish the job. A third visit was probed as the killer returned to erase traces. Investigators offered a €20,000 reward for information.
Mr Hoovers, who had a background in martial arts, founded record label Outland Records before selling the business and relocating to Thailand in the mid-1990s. A photo published by the Daily Mail showed Parker on a boat with Mr Hoovers suggesting at some point there had been a friendship between the men.
Parker was believed to have left the UK around the turn of the millennium. The ECHO previously reported that Parker and his brother, David, had both been jailed for their part in the killing of a teen in a botched drug deal.
Seventeen-year-old Phillip Green, from Warrington, was stabbed in the heart after he went to Walton Hall Park to buy cannabis. The Parker brothers were recorded by police discussing their roles in the incident, while Liverpool Crown Court heard a third unknown man was the one who delivered the stabbing.
The brothers were both jailed for five years. But Paul Parker later appeared on fresh charges after remaining unlawfully at large for four months. He received a further sentence of three months as a result.
Speaking to the ECHO in 2014, Phillip’s mum Pat said: “The memories have never faded. I remember every detail of that day as if it was yesterday, it’s like a film being played. But I wouldn’t ever want to forget it. It was the last day I saw Phillip alive.”