Chilling messages sent between 15-year-old Alex Rodda and his older lover who murdered him are set to be revisited in an ITV documentary airing tonight.Chilling messages
Holmes Chapel High School student Alex Rodda, from Cheshire, was bludgeoned to death by Matthew Mason, aged 19 at the time, who fatally beat the popular schoolboy with a large metal wrench in a secluded woodland in December 2019.
It was a murder case in which messages - online and text - were at the heart of the tragic events. What started out as flirting on Facebook dramatically spiralled to Alex's Rodda murder just six weeks later, .
Drawing on interviews with loved ones to introduce viewers to the young victim, the episode demonstrates how the grooming process played out.
On the surface, they had little in common. Alex Rodda was openly gay while Mason, a farmer's son from an affluent churchgoing family, was quiet and had left school to study at college. He claimed they started conversing in October 2019 with brief chat, before the messages turned intimate.
Mason killed schoolboy Alex in remote woodland in Cheshire on December 12, 2019.
Church-goer Matthew claimed he committed the crime over fears Alex would expose the pair's sexual relationship.
The killer lured his victim on the "pretence of sexual activity" before bludgeoning him in "cold blood".
After he was reported missing, Alex was found partially clothed by refuse collectors.
Mason, who lived with his parents on a farm near Knutsford, began messaging Alex in October 2019.
The texts soon turned sexual and Mason drunkenly sent the Year 11 pupil an explicit photo and video.
After Alex's body was discovered police arrested Mason and found dried blood on his hands and fingers and the blood-stained weapon in his car.
In January 2021, Mason was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 28 years for the murder.
In June of that year, the Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to a minimum of 26 years.
Alex's dad Adam Rodda gave a powerful victim impact statement before Mason's original sentencing, revealing he had "struggled not to take [his] own life to be with Alex".
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