THE jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict on the killing of a Pickmere teenager today, January 6.

Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School student Alex Rodda, 15, was beaten to death with a wrench in Ashley on December 12, 2019.

Matthew Mason, of Ash Lane, Ollerton, denies murdering Alex but has admitted hitting him 15 times on the head with the wrench, which led to his death.

The jury has been asked to consider whether the 19-year-old killed Alex in self defence or whether there was a loss of control.

In a trial at Chester Crown Court beginning a month ago, the court has heard that the pair had been in an intimate relationship which Mason tried to hide from his peers.

The Young Farmer, an agricultural engineering student at Reaseheath College, told the court he had been in a relationship with Caitlyn Lancashire for about two years before Alex told her Mason had sent him an explicit video.

Mason said he had been struggling to sleep in the weeks leading up to the killing and that he ‘did start to feel suicidal’ – admitting he was worried friends ‘wouldn’t accept me if I was gay’.

The court heard Mason had searched the internet for phrases including ‘what would happen if you kicked someone down the stairs’ and ‘everyday poison’ – but he claimed this was for his own suicide attempt and accused Alex of being a ‘bit of a bully’.

He said: “I started having these feelings a week or so after me and Caitlyn split up and Alex was asking me for money.”

Mason claimed that Alex had asked for £50 to stop him putting explicit images of him on social media, and that he eventually ended up borrowing money from friends to give the teenager more than £2,000.

The court heard that Mason picked up Alex on December 12 in his Renault Clio and stopped at remote woodland in Ashley, where he killed the teenager.

After driving away from the woods, Mason met friends in the Red Lion pub in Pickmere before heading to the Golden Pheasant at Plumley to meet other Young Farmers Club members.

Alex was described as a ‘joy to be around’ by mother Lisa Rodda in court, where she described looking into Mason’s ‘soulless eyes’ in their first encounter at her Pickmere home.

She said: “My whole body felt fear.

“He already had that motive in his mind.”

Alex was found partially-clothed by bin collectors the day after his killing, and Mason was arrested while driving through Staffordshire.

Ian Unsworth, prosecuting, told the court: “The attack was brutal and merciless. Alex did not stand a chance. His life ended in those woods.”

Judge Steven Everett is currently summarising the case ahead of sending the jury out.