Man on trial for killing schoolboy who threatened to reveal ‘intimate’ relationship

A 19-year-old British apprentice fatally bludgeoned a 15-year-old schoolboy with a wrench after paying nearly $2,700 to stop him from reporting their “intimate” relationship to cops, prosecutors allege.

Matthew Mason, an apprentice mechanic, allegedly lured Alex Rodda to a remote wooded area under the guise of meeting up for sex last December and then struck him at least 15 times with a long wrench, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Rodda’s partially clothed body was found near the village of Ashley in Cheshire, England, on Dec. 13.

Prosecutors said the boy had been involved in an ongoing intimate relationship with Mason, then 18, at the time of his death, the newspaper reported.

Prosecutor Ian Unsworth told a judge Monday that Mason led Rodda to the woods “on the pretense of sexual activity” before murdering the boy in “cold blood,” BBC News reported.

Weeks earlier, Rodda had reached out to Mason’s girlfriend and told her he had received “flirty” messages from her boyfriend, including an explicit video and photo, Unsworth said.

Mason, who denies killing Rodda, also shot down allegations that he sent the boy explicit material, but the aspiring mechanic allegedly started making deposits in Rodda’s bank account, ultimately paying him $2,696, according to prosecutors.

Rodda also told a friend Mason had been paying him for sex and threatened to go to cops if he stopped, which the teen’s pal said was wrong and amounted to “blackmail,” Unsworth said.

Mason later allegedly complained in messages recovered by investigators that the payments were “cleaning him out,” the Chester Chronicle reported.

Unsworth said the pair had sex on at least five occasions after connecting on Instagram, the Manchester Evening News reported.

At one point, Rodda’s mother allegedly returned home and found her son “flustered” with Mason inside, according to the newspaper.

“You may well think that Matthew Mason didn’t want Alex to tell anyone about their relationship,” Unsworth said in court Tuesday. “He manifestly made sure that Alex never could.”

Mason’s trial, which adjourned for the day Tuesday, is expected to last several weeks.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/08/uk-teen-accused-of-murdering-boy-who-threatened-to-reveal-r elationship/

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