THE tragic story of a 15-year-old who was murdered by a man who groomed him online was the focus of an ITV2 documentary last night, Tuesday.
Alex Rodda, from Pickmere, was brutally beaten to death in a merciless attack in remote woodland in December 2019.
His partially clothed body was discovered by a team of refuse collectors.
Matthew William Mason, now 20, of Ash Farm in Knutsford, denied the murder but was found guilty of beating the schoolboy to death with a metal wrench.
Mason was originally sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years – this was later reduced to 26 years after an appeal.
The Murder of Alex Rodda: Social Media Murders aired on ITV2 on November 16, highlighting how texts and messages on social media allowed Mason and Alex to first connect.
This lead to intimate images being shared on Snapchat.
Speaking on the programme, one of Alex's friends explained how social media played a huge part in Mason and Alex's relationship, as they were in different years at school.
She said: "Matt and Alex would probably have never got in touch again.
"Matt had left school, Alex was still in school, they lived in different places, they would probably never have been in touch again if it wasn't for social media.
"Even though Matt was who he said he was and didn't 'catfish' Alex, it was still social media which made it 10 times easier for him to get to that 15-year-old than it would have been if social media hadn't been a part of it."
Keri Nixon, a forensic psychologist speaking in the programme, said: "Once the conversation develops on Facebook, Mason takes it to Snapchat.
"He's sending images of himself through a platform that will then delete that information, so it almost gives him a sense of confidence that he's not going to be found out.
"Alex is obviously media-savvy so he saves copies.
"It catapults relationships into a sexual relationship very quickly because they feel safe to engage in that through social media."
When Alex found out that Mason had a girlfriend, Alex messaged her to tell her the truth.
Mason paid Alex around £2,000 to keep quiet about their sexual relationship – something which his friends were concerned about.
On December 6, Mason searched online for phrases such as 'how to poison someone', 'how to push someone down the stairs' and was Googling 'missing children in Cheshire who were never found'.
Alex was last seen on CCTV leaving his house at 5.24pm on December 12 and posted a picture to Snapchat from inside Mason's car.
Mason then drove Alex to a remote woodland in Ashley where he killed him by beating him 'at least 15 times' with a wrench.
He then went to the pub with his friends before going to back to the murder scene – police believe to try and put Alex's body in his car, before giving up.
Alex's body was found the next day.
After a month-long trial, Mason was found guilty of murder but after considering the written and oral submissions the Court of Appeal, judges agreed to reduce the minimum sentence handed to Mason from 28 years to 26 years.
Alex's family described Alex as a 'beautiful and lovely boy' who was 'free and comfortable with who he truly was' during the ITV2 programme.
They said more needed to be done to protect young people on social media.
The Murder of Alex Rodda: Social Media Murders is available on on the ITV Hub.
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