Social Media Murders S01E02 The Murder of Alex Rodda
When schoolboy Alex Rodda received a flirty message from an older man he was flattered and excited. Unaware he was being groomed he thought this would be his first taste of love. Yet just six weeks later he was bludgeoned to death in a dark woods. Matthew Mason, 18, was not openly gay and after grooming 15 year old Alex on social media he wanted to keep their relationship secret and knew there was only one way he could really silence his young lover.
When schoolboy Alex Rodda received a flirty message from an older man he was flattered and excited. Unaware he was being groomed he thought this would be his first taste of love. Yet just six weeks later he was bludgeoned to death in a dark woods. Matthew Mason, 18, was not openly gay and after grooming 15 year old Alex on social media he wanted to keep their relationship secret and knew there was only one way he could really silence his young lover.
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00:00The
00:29teenager's body was found here on Ashley Mill Lane in the village of Ashley on Friday
00:35morning at 8 o'clock. This quiet location is about a mile from the Hill of Trafford.
00:44When they told me it was Alex, I was crushed. I was crushed.
00:52He goes into a wooded area. Would Alex have gone there on his own? My feeling is he wouldn't.
00:59He's a 15 year old boy. So he's gone and took him into the forest and he's got this
01:04spanner behind his back and he's gone and hit my brother repeatedly over the head. It
01:09was a large, I'd say about 10, 15 inches long. It was quite a big piece of, it was quite
01:16a big tool. The force of one of the blows at least was enough to fracture his skull
01:24and fragments of the skull had penetrated his brain. And he's just left in there. It
01:29was very, very brutal. He lay bleeding for God knows how long before he actually did
01:37pass away. Someone had to go and identify him and my dad went in to do it. And him coming
01:43back and saying, yeah, it's Alex but it doesn't, it looks nothing like him. Social media made
01:49it 10 times easier for him to get to that 15 year old. And without social media, I suspect
01:55Alex will still be alive now. It really hurt that he was really, really googly about murdering
02:03my baby.
02:15Hey guys, so I'm back with another video.
02:21What's this for?
02:22A vlog.
02:23Are you vlogging?
02:24Yeah. So this is a daily life in Alex's project.
02:27Please like and subscribe.
02:29He was definitely a massive character in everybody's life.
02:36He was a proper social media boy. He loved his phone. No matter what you were doing,
02:42you had a camera in your face, Alex filming you. He videoed everything he did. He was
02:48a big person for Instagram.
02:52He always used to be on Snapchat filming himself.
02:56So when I'd come home, they'd be, you know, probably making some TikTok videos.
03:04Mainly singing, dancing on the phones, taking pictures.
03:10And Alex would be in the back and you'd just see him like sing with a spatula, like going
03:14like this, like singing to the song and I'd be dancing on the other side.
03:19He had a very close circle of friends that he became his, what he would say his besties.
03:27You had Esme, you had Brogan.
03:30Charlotte.
03:31Georgia.
03:32Yasmin.
03:33Molly.
03:34It was just a nice, nice bunch that we had there.
03:40Temperatures not too many degrees above freezing as we head through the afternoon, staying
03:44quite frosty.
03:45Elsewhere, where we've got thick low clouds and further rain to come.
03:53So before he had gone out, he had FaceTimed me to say that he was going to meet this boy.
04:03He said, well, George is going to be picking me up, Mum, about half, half five or something
04:08like that.
04:09So he'd FaceTimed me to tell me that he was going to stay at Charlotte's house and to
04:14let me know that Matt was getting him and taking him out first.
04:21I think he said that he was going for a meal with him.
04:29And he was like, listen to this, Esme.
04:31I was quite shocked by it.
04:32He said he wanted to take me to a special place in a field near a forest.
04:40And I had said, Alex, no, whatever you do, do not get him.
04:49What's special about a field, Alex?
04:51And Alex was like, exactly, that's my point.
04:53Like, there's nothing special about a field.
04:55So we had a little laugh about that, joking around.
04:58And then it was, oh, Matt's here now.
05:00And that was around quarter to six-ish.
05:03He was like, oh, Matt's outside now.
05:05I'm going to have to go.
05:10And he said he was going and I said, I'll see you later, Alex.
05:16He said, yeah, I'll see you later, Mum.
05:19And that was the last time I saw him.
05:21Well, I can remember it as clear as day.
05:37I remember he stood at the end of the bed right in front of me.
05:40And he goes, guess what?
05:41And he was really playful about it.
05:43And he was like, ooh, guess what?
05:45And I was like, what?
05:46Go on then.
05:47And he was, like, talking about it.
05:48Oh, I've got a story.
05:49He said, told me, you know,
05:50And he was like, I'm talking to someone in your year.
05:52And I was like, in my year?
05:54And I was like, who?
05:55And he was like, begins with an M and ends in A-son.
05:58And I was like, Matt Mason?
06:04He'd just kind of said I'd been speaking to this boy
06:08and he's asked to meet me.
06:09Kind of like, kind of getting my opinion on him,
06:13whether I think you should meet him or not.
06:14But I asked to see a photo.
06:15He was like, no, you'll think he's ugly.
06:17I was excited for him because I thought,
06:19this is part of his development.
06:23He'd never really had his first relationship.
06:27Alex had never really been with a boy properly.
06:29Obviously he was quite young, he was 15.
06:30He came and sat next to me on the bed
06:32and he showed me a messages between them.
06:34I don't really know what it was,
06:35but they were flirty messages.
06:37Enough to think that he wasn't friendly,
06:40if that makes sense.
06:41And I was a bit gobsmacked.
06:46I've known Matt Mason for so long
06:48and I've never had any indication
06:51that he likes boys in any way.
06:54Matt and Alex probably would have never got in touch again.
06:57Matt had left school, Alex was still in school.
06:59They lived in different places.
07:01They would have probably never been in touch again
07:02if it wasn't for social media.
07:04He is our wealth.
07:05He has got a wealthy family.
07:06He's a farmer and he used to go to you.
07:09He was part of the young farmers.
07:11It's just like a social group type of thing.
07:16It was his first relationship
07:19and no matter how that relationship was formed,
07:24I think Alex must have had some feelings towards him.
07:28Even though Matt was who he said he was
07:30and he didn't catfish Alex,
07:31it was still social media made it 10 times easier
07:34for him to get to that 15-year-old
07:37than it would have been if social media wasn't a part of it.
07:40Within meeting him, it was quite quickly.
07:44I think in a couple of weeks,
07:46Matt Mason started texting Alex,
07:49sending him a picture through social media of his manhood.
07:56I guess in a way it's exciting
07:58because people like texting these days.
08:01It's like an exciting sort of thing,
08:02but Alex kind of thought it was a joke.
08:04And that's where you could tell where his age coming again.
08:07That was something that was funny to Alex.
08:09So again, that's where the fact he was 15 came in.
08:13He was so young.
08:16I came out the restaurant around nine o'clock
08:19and I started to ring Alex
08:20as soon as I left the restaurant,
08:22I rang Alex to say I'm on my way.
08:25I couldn't get through to Alex.
08:30Alex's phone used to always go to answer machine
08:32before I could get through to him.
08:34He was on his phone all the time.
08:36He was on his phone all the time.
08:38I couldn't get through to him.
08:39I couldn't get through to him.
08:41I couldn't get through to him.
08:42I couldn't get through to him.
08:44My phone would always go to answer machine
08:46before it would ring a couple of times.
08:49So I wasn't any, I wasn't concerned at that moment.
08:56I knew that where he was going, he was going to be all right.
09:01Nobody really had a bad feeling at this point.
09:04Everyone thought he was just going to show back up at home,
09:06but just really late.
09:06And he had been stupid and gone out somewhere by himself.
09:10But the thing with Alex is he didn't ever go out
09:13or charge in his phone and he never lied about where he's going especially to his friends.
09:22I came home and I kept calling him and then I rang
09:29Esme and I said is Alex with you and she said no, no it's not here.
09:38Lisa had messaged me and said Alex has not shown up at home and he's not showing up at
09:41Charlotte's where he's supposed to go to and Georgia was giving him a lift. I rang Georgia
09:49she was like where's Alex just like really calm and I was like well what do you mean where's Alex
09:53she was like is he not with you. I knew there was something really bad I was petrified
10:00I was petrified because I couldn't find him.
10:31This is Alex and he's two tomorrow and it's the 4th of March 2006. Bounce Alex!
10:48I knew from Alex being a little boy that he was feminine. Never known a baby like him.
10:56He used to like my jewellery and he'd put my shoes on and he'd come down and he'd be
11:04walking around in my hats and playing around with it.
11:09When Alex became 13 I remember the day he came into the kitchen and he said mum I need to speak
11:17to you. I knew what he was going to tell me I knew straight away and he said mum I think I'm gay.
11:29I said okay. I was worried about the homophobia side of things that he'd be you know he'd be
11:40targeted and he was.
11:45A lot of the boys used to just like shout stuff at him like they'd just say like homophobic slurs
11:51to him and they just made they made him feel really small. Alex was friends with everyone he
11:57was that much of a nice person that's why I never understood why people would ever shout things at
12:01him because he never did anything to hurt anyone it was just purely the fact he was so openly gay.
12:06Luckily Alex had a large circle of girlfriends and they used to defend him as well.
12:17He's not gay.
12:23On December the 12th Mason picked up Alex in his car
12:27and brought him to these woods near Hale just off the M56.
12:36The women's a pub it's um you can eat in there obviously and go to the bar
12:50but I worked as a waitress whereas Alex worked in the kitchen doing pot washing.
12:58Molly was on the bar serving us and Molly was asking about this new boy that they'd
13:02been seeing because she'd heard bits of it and she'd heard bits of me and Alex speaking about
13:07him work so she'd been like oh who's this boy you've been speaking to? He showed me his phone
13:12he sort of explained that he'd been seeing this new guy um that was a bit older than him um and
13:18didn't want anybody to sort of find out the guy that he was seeing didn't want anybody to find
13:22out about their relationship. He used to would send videos of himself masturbating so they were
13:30very very graphic things he used to send over on Snapchat Matt um just normal photo just a normal
13:37average photo of his penis and then he would also send masturbating videos as well.
13:44Once the conversation develops on Facebook Mason takes it to Snapchat he's sending images of
13:51himself through a platform that will then delete that information so almost gives him a sense of
13:59confidence that he's not going to be found out. Alex is obviously media savvy so he
14:06saves copies. We must have sent at least one every day over to Alex which is kind of like
14:12drawing him in and grooming him in a sort of way. It catapults relationships into a sexual
14:20kind of uh relationship very quickly because they feel safe to engage in that on and through
14:26social media. They wouldn't do that probably as quickly face to face. Matt should have knew in his
14:32head he's 15 he shouldn't be making the choice at 15 whether he wants to do something with a boy
14:38he should get to at least the age 16 even older to even be able to make that choice
14:43in his mind whether he wanted to touch a boy or let another boy touch him.
14:46I had his friends, he came over, Gemma came over, Esme, Georgia.
15:08Lisa asked me if I'd put a Facebook post out saying he's missing
15:12um so I did and I posted some pictures and
15:16like contact me my number or Lisa and put her number on it.
15:25Because of the Facebook got so many shares I think it got like
15:29like 200k shares or something so everyone started then going to his Instagram and then this is when
15:35people who knew of him because he was he was so known from like all the way to Manchester to
15:40Bolton to Liverpool like people knew him. I rang the police on three or four occasions and I said
15:46look I don't think you're taking this seriously enough I know he's only been missing a few hours
15:51but I know my son if he hasn't got his phone with him there's a problem there's something
15:55not right. I rang his dad and I said something's happened something's really bad happened.
16:02Go on my phone, check Facebook as as you do, scrolling down Facebook and I see missing person
16:08and it had he had my brother on it.
16:15Call up my dad, dad yeah he's gone missing um have you heard about the Russians? I said what do you mean the Russians?
16:32I was getting messages on Facebook with Russian profile names
16:37saying that they had had the gay boy in the back of the van and they were going to kill him.
16:50I think there was three or four accounts maybe or something like that that had said that they
16:57kidnapped him and they said that he was missing and they've got him in the back of the van.
17:05We all agreed we'd all split up and go look for him so me Liam and Esme went in Liam's car.
17:13Me, Georgia and Liam were getting messages on Instagram saying we've got him in the back of a van
17:18we're starving him beating the gay out of him he's not going to be gay after this.
17:22We believed it, we believed that they they've taken him and they were telling us that they've got him and that's where he is.
17:32We were like going around all the warehouses near um near home chapel.
17:40I was obviously replying and then they were saying more things to me how thick your makeup is and I'm
17:44going to scrape it off with a knife and stuff like that like really weird.
17:49But at this point our hearts just sunk thinking that he was really in the back of that van
17:54um and obviously he wasn't we'd run the police to let them know about all the prank calls so they
18:01could track down the IP addresses and find out who was actually behind these accounts.
18:08I wasted a fair part of that night trying to find out who was actually behind these accounts.
18:15I wasted a fair part of that night on on them thinking that they had him.
18:21They went to Macclesfield College I'm pretty sure of and I don't I didn't even know they knew Alex.
18:27I knew all those trolls were just just evil people and they didn't have Alex
18:36so whilst everyone was very stressed by that I was very much calming that because I just knew
18:43that they did not have my son that Mac Mason had had my son.
18:59About a week before I'd gone out in the afternoon to the shops
19:04and I came back and the front door was locked
19:07and I remember seeing these big brown working boots and I felt very quite alone by that straight away.
19:24As I went upstairs Alex appeared, Mac Mason stood on the top of the stairs
19:30and Alex was at his bedroom door.
19:32Alex said he was just passing by and I said right that's okay well he can leave now Alex.
19:43Yes is he leaving? So he said yes he's going now mum.
19:50So I instantly said to Alex stay away from that boy.
19:55There's something seriously not right with him Alex. I was feeling all this fear.
20:02I was in my year I had quite a few lessons with him but it wasn't he wasn't someone who I was
20:16close with but I could talk to him and he'd know me and I'd know him.
20:20He was an odd character he used to get really angry and I remember one time I can't remember
20:25why he did it but he got so angry on the table he like clenched his fists and like went like that
20:31and then went bright red and he kept doing it and the teacher was like stop
20:35like stop now and he was like getting really angry and like slamming his fists on the table.
20:45He might have possibly met him once
20:48and then it wasn't long after that he found out that Matt had a girlfriend.
20:56I was shocked and he'd get really upset by that.
20:59I kind of felt like he obviously wanted everyone else's opinion on it
21:02and whether it was his place to tell the girl or not.
21:04Alex showed me the message of him saying to him I don't want
21:08to talk to you because you've got a girlfriend it's wrong you should tell her and Matt was like
21:13no I'm not going to tell her or or let me deal with it don't get involved.
21:18So I'd think he'd give it a week and
21:22Alex was like you've not told your girlfriend that's it I'm telling her.
21:29Alex had told his girlfriend now but Matt wasn't happy about that.
21:49It's kind of like he was definitely 100% fully gay
21:54but he wanted to keep this girlfriend to hide it from his family.
21:56Matt Mason lied to him. Matt Mason lied he had a girlfriend for two years.
22:01Alex contacted his girlfriend he did the right thing.
22:27I messaged Matt Mason and he was like oh I dropped him off in Holmes Chapel
22:41because he was going to Manchester with some friends and I was like what friends because
22:45who would Alex go to Manchester with at eight o'clock in the evening?
22:49And I didn't think anything then because I wouldn't
22:53I did I trusted him because I knew him.
22:55I rang Esme.
22:58I was like oh no George didn't pick him up Matt was picking him up to go to Charlotte's house.
23:03Lisa didn't like that straight away.
23:05And Esme told me that he'd gone out with Matt Mason for dinner
23:10and I just really really really went into real real panic.
23:25Yeah it's exciting he's got this he's got this guy that's older than him.
23:46He's got money he's got a car that takes him places also the sexual side to it as well.
23:52But at the exact same time Matt was trying to hide from his girlfriend that he was with a boy.
24:06He'd convinced his girlfriend that Alex was lying and I guess finding out you're getting
24:09cheated on is hard enough to accept so she didn't want to accept it as it was
24:13but never mind it being with a boy so it was kind of like
24:16Alex didn't want it to be hid Matt wanted it to be hid so it was kind of like clashing there.
24:21That's where like the whole money thing came into it.
24:38Started off with if you don't tell my girlfriend I'll give you 50 pound.
24:42Matt was like saying oh I'll give you more I'll give you more money
24:46if you just don't tell my girlfriend let me tell my girlfriend.
24:52It's hush money it's to keep him quiet and get what he wants out what Matt
24:58and what only Matt wants because he's using this big thing to control a boy.
25:07It's a 15 year old boy if a man is giving a 15 year old boy money
25:13what of course he's going of course he's going to accept it of course he's going to enjoy that.
25:19The money completely changes this relationship.
25:22One it almost appears now that his sexual behaviour is being paid for.
25:37That's part of the grooming process.
25:40Mason starts to give him money he then says Alex you can't tell anybody.
25:44Alex then becomes part of that process.
25:47He's then complicit within so he can't say anything so Mason's then free to do what he wants.
25:53He showed me his phone.
25:55I saw multiple different transactions for various amounts
26:00sort of adding up to there was some for like 200 pounds
26:04and some a little bit less and a bit more
26:07and it sort of added up to around sort of like 2000 just over 2000 pounds
26:12and obviously he didn't realise the danger.
26:15I remember it's like turning to him and he was stood next to me
26:19and I said to him I was like you're playing with fire.
26:23So when you start giving a child money and you start saying to that child keep it a secret
26:29that is grooming and you can't tell your friends that I'm picking you up
26:33don't tell them that is grooming.
26:36I've had messages of Esme saying have you seen Alex have you seen Alex
26:40and I was like no so I rang her and I was like what's going on
26:43and she said um Alex has been missing for the last few hours
26:48and she's like right well like what do you want to do
26:50and I said I'm just gonna try and find things online see if there's anything I can see.
26:57I was checking train tickets and I was like I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it
27:01and I was like I'm not sure if there's anything I can see.
27:04I was checking train times to check when the trains were going to come in from Manchester
27:11because there was so many different stories some people were saying he was in Manchester shopping
27:17some people were saying he was in Holmes Chapel met up with a friend
27:21there was different so no one really had a clue nothing was really adding up.
27:31None of us believed that he'd gone Manchester but if there's a chance that he had gone
27:35we were all waiting at the train station waiting for him to get off the last train
27:38this was the last train and he didn't get off it
27:41so it's kind of when everyone went into full-on panic mood then.
27:48I checked his Snapchat story and he put a picture on his like private story of him in a car
27:56with two love hearts and we're trying to figure out where it was what we could see
28:02it looked like they might have been going for like a drive-thru
28:05it looked like it was kind of around here didn't look like it was in a city
28:08or there was not much around but it looked like it was
28:11the countryside which obviously there's lots of countryside around here.
28:17He wasn't with anybody that we knew like we'd messaged all the girls at this point
28:20we were trying to get to Matt to find out whether he was still with Matt or not.
28:26I was saying right maybe look around Haynes Chapel and look around like fields
28:31so they were looking around different fields and they were looking around
28:34they they drove around a lot that night.
28:38Matt was the last person who he saw he picked him up from his house
28:43and now he's just suddenly not answering his phone.
28:51So I eventually got Matt's number and I was ringing and ringing and ringing
28:55and he just wouldn't pick up the phone and he'd eventually picked up
28:58so I was like hi where's Alex and at first he was like what do you mean stop lying
29:02I said I know you've been with Alex you've been with Alex tonight
29:05he's told me that you were picking him up wherever you dropped him off
29:08because nobody's heard from him for hours.
29:13We called some of the girls for Matt Mason's number and I rang Matt Mason.
29:25And he didn't answer so I texted him.
29:36So then he rang me
29:42and I asked him where's my son and he said he he he dropped my son off
29:51at Holmes Chapel at six o'clock.
29:55And at one point he actually offered to drive up to us he said he's near close by
30:01he's just been at the pub with his friends he can actually drive to us and help us look for Alex.
30:05When he said that that's when I just really screamed said I'm getting the police
30:09I'm getting the police you've hurt my son.
30:12You've hurt my son.
30:22Lisa had told them about Mason so they text Mason
30:30that night could you help us about we're looking for a friend of yours Alex Rodder.
30:42So
30:57it was like two three o'clock in the morning Alex still hadn't turned up at home he hadn't
31:02turned up at my house or Charlotte's house not a single person had heard from him
31:07his phone still wasn't on.
31:13And I think then I knew he was hurt because I just felt it like I knew something was really wrong.
31:31Anyway everybody got tired they they were it was two o'clock and
31:35they had work and they couldn't look all night and we went home and I couldn't rest it was my son.
31:42I knew there was something really bad I knew he was hurt somewhere and I couldn't get to him.
32:12The teenager's body was found here on Ashley Mill Lane in the village of Ashley.
32:19I had a gut feeling that was going to be going to be Alex just because
32:23of the location and the description of what they'd found.
32:28I made my way over to the family family home where Lisa lives
32:33she she guessed as soon as I turned up that it was bad news.
32:36A body had been found
32:41of a similar description but they wasn't confirming it was Alex and we had to wait.
32:52Someone had to go and identify him my dad went and did it with with his partner Maxine
32:56and him coming back and saying yeah it's Alex but it doesn't looks nothing like him
33:01it's Alex but it doesn't looks nothing like him and he for clear identification he wanted
33:07to see Alex's feet so he saw his feet because he just looked nothing like him.
33:19We were in the police station about to get interviewed still thinking that we were trying
33:23to find Alex we did not know that they'd found a body they'd told our parents though
33:28our parents weren't allowed to tell us so they took us in for the interview then.
33:35That was no, that they found his body, no.
33:47Cheshire constabularies say an 18 year old man has now been charged with murder he's been named
33:54Mason from Ollerton near Knutsford he's been remanded in custody and he's due to appear before
33:59crew magistrates court sometime tomorrow. They'd found Mason's car driving around the town and
34:05chased him at one point. He was driving towards Telford or I think it was Telford driving towards
34:10that way and the police doing a t-pack stop, t-pack stop being police surround the car and
34:18force him to stop. Mason was picked up on the A41 in Staffordshire officers told him to
34:25get to get out of the car and to put his hands up which he didn't do he just sat in the car and did
34:30nothing and then again after asking him he again did nothing so they went over and they smashed
34:37the window and they dragged him out of the car and arrested him. They found the weapon in the boot
34:44they found my brother's coat in the boot. For me the biggest thing that stuck out was
34:48from the start of the investigation Mason was never honest he was never truthful I believe
34:56he was trying to play the system. Once in the woods Mason claimed the pair had argued that
35:03Alex had hit him first and that he was acting in self-defense. Matt Mason was full of fear and shame
35:10and that shame destroyed my son's life.
35:41The trial was horrendous certainly in the early days.
35:48You could hear a pin drop in that court it was very very tense.
35:55I attended every minute of the trial. I had a duty to attend as my brother so I had to be there for every single second I wanted to know what was going on I wanted to know every single minutiae of those events.
36:07He'd sort of said that Alex had attacked him that was his defense Alex had attacked him and he'd
36:13responded in self-defense. When he took the stand for the first time it sounds like he has learning
36:20difficulties. He spoke like Forrest Gump he spoke in a real in a real like um you know like he was a
36:28bit he wasn't all there. The police went through all his social media to see if he actually spoke
36:34like that. It turns out he didn't that wasn't his normal voice he's putting on an act.
36:42So he's gone and took him into the forest and he's he's got this spanner behind his back
36:48and um we think that Alex was was in a vulnerable position on his knees and when that's happened
36:57when Alex has gone down Matt Mason has took the spanner out and he's gone and hit my brother
37:02repeatedly over the head. All we know is that Mason had hit Alex at least 15 times to the head
37:09and body and that during the attack the force of one of the blows at least was enough to fracture
37:15his skull and fragments of the skull had penetrated his brain. Then he'd stood over him and had a sig.
37:32Obviously you don't believe anything that comes out of Matt's mouth anymore but
37:37he said when he first left that he thought he was definitely still breathing so he was definitely
37:42laying there in pain.
37:54He went to clean himself up outside I think it was outside one of his friend's farms.
37:59Then gone to the pub near my house up the road from me just for an alibi and sat with his friends
38:06and had a pint like everything was normal. When he got to the pub he took a picture of himself
38:11on snapchat we assumed at the time it was to form part of an alibi to say that you know he hadn't
38:16been anywhere near Alex at the time and then later that night when he got home he took a picture of
38:23himself again sat in a selfie of him sat in bed he was shirtless and he sent it to his girlfriend
38:29saying good night. And then he goes back to the scene to check to see if my brother is you know
38:40has my brother moved is my brother still there has he killed my brother. He'd gone basically gone
38:46back to make sure his job was done. Now our brother's big he's six same size as me six foot
38:53two he's also a very large boy as well so he's heavy and he totally underestimated that
39:00so he's going to give him up and just left him there because he can't put him in the car.
39:04When we were in the court it all came out that Mike Mason on December the 6th had been googling
39:12how to how to poison somebody how to push somebody down the stairs. He was also googling sites on
39:26missing children in Cheshire that were never found. It was horroring to even see that somebody
39:34that was really really thinking about your son in this way.
39:41I don't know if my boy was scared going into the woods. I don't know if he knew nothing about
39:48I don't know if my boy was scared
39:52going into the woods. I don't know if he knew nothing about it. I hope he knew nothing
39:59but I'll never know.
40:08I really wanted him to look me in the eye when I was giving my evidence because I just I just
40:14wanted to look him in the eye. I wanted him to sort of see like what he had done not only to
40:21Alex but to everybody in in this sort of surrounding situation and his eyes were just like just black
40:30there was just like nothing nothing there. So the jury were out for I think it was a couple of days
40:37they were deliberating for the judge brought them in and he said um is you know if you reached a
40:43verdict and then that's when they said it was a guilty verdict so it was it was really dramatic.
40:52When the judgment came all that anxiety that I've been feeling throughout the year
40:57and also during the trial it just went it just in terms of relief it was the biggest relief I've
41:04ever experienced in my life. So Mason was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28
41:10years so he must serve 28 years before he's considered for parole by the parole board
41:15um there was quite a it was quite tense during sentencing when he was sentenced
41:23um Mason burst into tears the family burst into tears and Alex's family burst into tears as well.
41:32It was down to Alex's friends that they had such an abundance of information.
41:37Mason had got rid of Alex's phone but there's loads of information between Alex and his friends
41:43that his friends came forward and helped the police investigation and were very much pivotal
41:50in helping the police understand the lead up to Alex's murder.
41:55I think at the end of the day it shows the power of friendship between between Alex and the girls.
42:17The judge said and is summing up after Mr Mason had been found guilty
42:22that um Mr Mason had groomed Alex over a period of time over the phone um I mean Mr Mason was 18
42:33at the time and Alex was only 15 he was only a school boy. Most children now they have some
42:44form of social media whether it be Facebook, Instagram, TikTok that's a big one for grooming
42:49now um they just because it's so easy to share. Social media makes it so much easier for people
42:58to be groomed because they can hide behind a keyboard they can hide behind the screen.
43:04Social media has to be regulated and has to have more governance
43:10and hopefully that will prevent this type of thing happening again.
43:13Don't go in there naively, don't go in there thinking it's all roses
43:17especially at that age because you know you don't realize
43:21you know the the demons that some people have in their heads.
43:30Alex's life so cruelly ripped away from him all of the hands of some other boy who could not be free
43:39and be his self. My son was punished for it.
43:44At one point Mason said Alex tried to kiss me and I said no kissing that made my blood boil
43:52and that to me is unforgivable because those are one of the things that my boy's missed out on
43:58he's missed out on a loving relationship he'll never have that.
44:01Life goes on and I think the best thing to do in in his honor is just do the best you can in your own life.
44:16It was just a beautiful lovely boy
44:22and he was just a lovely boy and he was just a lovely boy and he was just a lovely boy.
44:28He was just a beautiful lovely boy.
44:35A man couldn't wish
44:39for a better son.
44:42It was important for Alex to be free and comfortable with who he truly was and he was.
44:49He was I mean he was and and it and it was wonderful for him to be free
44:55in his self in that short time that he he lived he was really free.
45:03Yeah.
45:07Alex!
45:48you