Two men accused of murdering notorious Liverpool gangster Paul Parker in the Netherlands have been placed in protective custody after reports emerged that an assassin had been sent from England to target them. Parker, 52, died on 1 June after being shot during a fight in Heerhugowaard, where he had entered a garage armed with a knife while attempting to collect a debt. The move underlines the ongoing danger surrounding the case, which is linked to Parker's own alleged involvement in a notorious unsolved double murder.

Suspects René S, 65, and John S, 44, whose surnames are withheld under Dutch privacy law, were held in solitary confinement and made to receive visitors separately after the threat reportedly surfaced while they were in hospital being treated for injuries from the fight. Police have since told their lawyers the threat is no longer active, though one lawyer questioned the timing, noting it lifted just before a preliminary hearing. At the time of his death, Parker was wanted over the 2017 killing of Pieter Hoovers and his wife Tae Kawepanya in Amsterdam, and had left the UK around 25 years earlier after being jailed in 1993 alongside his brother for the fatal stabbing of teenager Phillip Green during a botched drug deal.