The trial of a teenager accused of murdering the Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones could be delayed after he was left without a senior barrister because of a government limit on legal aid.

The trial was due to start on October 2 but the 17-year-old defendant does not have a QC, and his solicitor and junior barrister are working without pay because of new rules restricting those who can take on legal aid cases. If a QC cannot be found, the defence could apply for the case to be stayed.

Rhys, 11, was shot dead in August last year as he walked home from football practice. The alleged killer is one of seven accused.

The Government’s Legal Services Commission has classed the trial as a Very High Costs Case, which means that it can involve only solicitors and barristers who have joined a panel that has accepted fixed-rate pay starting at £70 an hour for a junior and £91 for a QC. Two QCs and 108 other barristers out of 2,300 in England and Wales have signed up to the agreement.

The teenager’s solicitor, James Benson, has applied for a Judicial Review of the classification of the case. Jonathan Duffy, a junior barrister who represented the defendant during the pretrial hearing at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, said that the defence might have to seek an adjournment.

Richard Marks, QC, the circuit leader of the northern circuit of the Bar Council, said: “It would be absolutely unheard of for a murder defendant in this type of case not to be represented by a QC.”

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