A TEENAGER who killed his schoolboy lover had arranged to meet him in woods to tell him blackmail had to stop, a court has heard.

Matthew Mason, 19, allegedly murdered 15-year-old Pickmere boy Alex Rodda in Ashley, on December 12 last year, after paying more than £2,000 to stop him revealing their sexual relationship.

On the second day of a trial at Chester Crown Court, Gordon Cole QC, defending, told jurors they would have to consider whether the killing was self-defence or if there was a loss of control.

In a short opening statement, Mr Cole said the defendant, an agricultural engineering student who lived with his family on a farm near Knutsford, had been "persuaded" by Alex to engage in sexual acts.

Mr Cole told the court Alex then blackmailed Mason into giving him substantial sums of money, which he had to borrow from family members, and said if he did not he would tell everyone about their "relationship".

He said: "On the day of the events you will be concerned with, Matthew Mason agreed to meet Alex Rodda. He intended to say that this behaviour, this blackmail, had to stop."

He told the jury Mason armed himself with a wrench, the weapon used in the killing, because he wanted to frighten Alex.

He said: "The violence that commenced in the woods was, we will suggest, violence started by Alex Rodda."

The jury heard Mason had picked up Alex, a pupil at Holmes Chapel High School, shortly before 5.30pm on December 12, and driven to the remote woodland.

The defendant's Renault Clio was parked in the area, where Alex's body was found the following morning, for about 35 minutes, the court was told.

Ian Unsworth QC, prosecuting, said: "It was during that time that the prosecution suggest that Alex was subjected to a brutal, horrific and violent attack at the hands of this defendant."

After driving away from the woods, Mason met friends in the Red Lion pub in Pickmere and told them he had had a nosebleed, pointing to spots of blood on his jeans, the court heard.

He then said he was leaving to meet the Young Farmers at the Golden Pheasant pub in Plumley, where he arrived shortly after 8pm, Mr Unsworth said.

He told the court: "As described by one who knew him, he appeared to be his normal happy self."

The court heard that in the week before the killing, Mason had searched online for "what would happen if you kicked someone down the stairs", "everyday poison" and "the mysteries of Cheshire unsolved deaths of missing people".

The jury was shown CCTV of Mason's car returning to the woods just after 1am, where it remained for about an hour.

Mr Unsworth told jurors they must consider whether Mason had intended to move Alex's body.

He showed the court a large wrench and said it was found, bloodstained, in the boot of Mason's car when he was stopped by police and arrested as he drove through Staffordshire on December 13.

Mason, of Ash Lane, Ollerton, denies murder.