Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Wives and Knives a true crime podcast with your hosts Dani & Kelly. We hope you are all keeping safe & well out there.
This week it's another mini, and we each have a case which focus on LGBTQ+ Crimes.
Please remember that we mean no disrespect to anyone mentioned in this episode, or across any of the wives and knives platforms.
We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as light-hearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.
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Yes, June is pride month, and pride is something we are both very passionate about, but before we get into the cases, let’s have our usual little catch up. I’ve been busy as usual, but all is well, I’m enjoying the football in short bouts and who doesn't enjoy a good Matt Hancock meme!
What about you Kelly?
I have run away to Turkey and am currently in a secret location not far from Istanbul with my child, apologies for the delay listeners. Not really, that’s where I wish I were.
Anyway, as Dani said, June is Pride month, and it is held yearly to honour the stonewall uprising in Manhattan.
On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, which resulted in bar patrons, staff, and neighbourhood residents rioting onto Christopher Street outside.
protestors demanded the establishment of places where LGBT+ people could go and be open about their sexual orientation without fear of arrest, thus fuelling the first wave of the Gay pride movement.
A year later in 1970, the first official pride parade was organised by pioneering activist Brenda Howard and a committee she founded.
Lots of different countries celebrate pride throughout the summer and have pride events, although no doubt some will be different this year. Pride day is officially the 28th of June, so it seems fitting that we are recording this episode today.
Matthew Shepard
(by K)
It does. So we have two very different cases for you, and I’m going to start us off by telling you about the horrific killing of Matthew Shepard. I wonder if our younger listeners will have heard of Matthew’s case, it is widely seen as one of the worst anti-gay hate crimes in American history.
Matthew was beaten by two assailants, Aaron McKinney, and Russell Henderson. They pistol whipped him then tied him to a fence in freezing co before leaving him to die.
What happened to Matthew inspired, lots of books, podcasts, documentaries, films, TV shows and even a stage play. But most importantly it drove a change in hate crime legislation.
But sadly I think that whilst this crime takes place in 1998, little has bloody changed in the world when it comes to hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people.
As per my MO this is a freaking huge case which I will try to condense, and no doubt fail miserably. So let’s begin.
Matthew Wayne Shepard was born on the first of December 1976 in Casper Wyoming to mother Judy and Father Denis Shepard. He was their first-born child and came into the world prematurely, life was often a bit of a struggle for him as he suffered from lots of childhood ailments.
His younger brother Logan followed in 1981 and the brothers got on really well. this completed the close Shepard family. Matthew was quite small in stature and whilst he had friends and a good childhood in a lot of aspects, he did get teased at school for his size because he wasn’t particularly athletic; so understandably he preferred the company of adults. He was a creative child, he wrote poetry, liked to act, and was interested in politics; he wanted to be famous or a diplomat.
In 1994 due to Denis’ job as an oil safety engineer, the family moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. There wasn’t a suitable school there for the children, so they attended a boarding school in Switzerland. And I say children, but Matthew is in his late teens now in his senior year, it’s a very progressive school and he studied German and Italian and was involved in theatre. It sounds like he really enjoyed it there and he made lots of friends, lifelong friends. He was a peer counsellor, popular and wanted to help people.
It’s during this senior year at this school that Matthew and three of his classmates take a trip to Morocco. One night during the trip unable to sleep Matthew leaves the hotel and walks to a nearby coffeehouse, where he spoke to some German students. On his way back to the accommodation a gang of locals robbed and assaulted him; he was raped six times.
Matthew went to the police and despite in all fairness being supportive and genuinely nice to Matthew they were unable to catch the perpetrators. Understandably Matthew who stayed with his parents back in Saudi Arabia after the attack, suffered anxiety, flashbacks, and nightmares. And understandably he didn’t feel safe.
His mum Judy and his friends say he was never the same after Morocco. It traumatised him greatly, and he retreated into himself.
After graduation in 1995 unsure of which path to take he returned to the states and attends Catawba college in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he starts his higher education journey. It’s here he meets some more good friends; he’s introduced by one of his teachers to Romaine Patterson an outgoing lesbian with a large social circle and is welcomed into the gay community on campus.
Perhaps feeling safe and supported by his new friends Matthew officially comes out as gay to his parents. Matthew had told a close friend that he had known since a young age, he worried how to tell his family. He is said to have left gay magazines out for them to find but was surprised when they didn’t say anything. He needn’t have worried because his parents if a little unsure how best to support their son, had known for a long time and had no problem with his announcement.
And neither do any of his friends, everyone is cool with it. Later this year Romaine decides to move to Denver and Matthew Joins her. He gets a job in a call centre to pay the bills and she works in a coffee shop.
Matthew hasn’t had the best experiences in his young life. The rape was horrific; and due to this he suffers from periodic bouts of depression and paranoia. He seeks help from the church and is rebuffed and advised he is a sinner.
His mum Judy said Q-, ‘My fear is irrational, I shouldn’t be afraid of people.’ And then he would over-compensate for his fear by making himself do something he shouldn’t”
So Matthew is a lovely guy, he wants to see the best in people, “It was very important to [Matthew] to be a good role model, especially to his younger brother Logan, who was due to join him in Laramie for the following summer.
like a kind of counterphobia.
So he would sometimes take risks with his safety by walking home alone late at night or recklessly put himself in the hands of strangers; he didn’t want to be confined by fear.
On the family vacation to Yellowstone in 1997 Matthew went to a bar in Cody by himself late one night. He drank heavily, left with some strangers, and eventually passed out, with flashbacks of Morocco.
He awoke, with a split lip and bruised jaw. uncertain of what had happened, Later the bartender told the police that Matthew had made a pass at him and that he had therefore been compelled to hit him.
As was usual for Matthew, he moved on from the incident- and this was physical more than mentally, so in 1998 he moves to Laramie. Laramie is a small town where he could feel safe, and he tried to focus on his education. In the September of 1998 he enrols in the university of Wyoming.
Matthew had ADD and did struggle with his schooling, he was suffering with his mental health at this time and was stressed about his grades but was performing well and getting decent grades. He wants to make it work in Laramie; he’s got a good network of friends locally and he has thrown himself into the university’s LGBTQ+ community.
On October 7th, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew meets up with some friends on campus they were planning the upcoming LGBT Awareness week. Matthew was keen to get drinks afterwards but couldn’t persuade anyone to join him. Later that evening Matthew ends up at the Fireside Lounge; he’d been there before and often sat at the bar and had a drink.
He gets talking to two of the other patrons of the bar, two roofers, Russell Henderson, and Aaron McKinney, both the same age as him.
After talking for a while Matthew joined Henderson & McKinney in their pickup truck and set off out of town.
Once on the move McKinney pulled a gun and hit Matthew before taking his wallet which contained 20 dollars.
Henderson drove the truck around a mile out of town and down a dirt path that ended in a rocky prairie of sagebrush and range grass.
They parked up and Henderson proceeded to tie Matthew with his arms behind his back to a log fence using a clothesline. What followed was horrific.
Mckinney began to ferociously pistol whip Matthew. Matthew was struck in the head and the face approximately 20 times with the butt of a very large smith & Wesson revolver. They stole his shoes and then left him, beaten, alone & tied to a fence in the frigid cold.
18 hours later, a teenager who was riding his mountain bike noticed what he thought was a fallen scarecrow or a mannequin.
it’s never a mannequin!
Nope, and sadly he very quickly realised it was a person and this person was still alive.
The cyclist, Aaron Kreifels called the police and former patrol Officer Reggie Fluty was first on the scene and she noted that Matthew was barely alive, he was unconscious, and his respirations were extremely weak. Reggie reassured Matthew, telling him he was going to be okay and to hang on. She thought due to his stature that he was a child, and she also said that his face was covered in blood except for the tear tracks on his cheeks. She started to clear his air ways of blood and tried to do her best for him.
Matthew was rushed first to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie before being moved to the more advanced trauma ward at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado - just to put his injuries into context, the Sheriff Dave O’Malley who worked on the case said the only time he’d seen such dramatic injuries before were in high-speed traffic crashes.
His parents rushed to the hospital from Saudi Arabia to be with their son. In fact if it weren’t for his dental brace and a partially opened eye where they could glimpse the blue, they wouldn’t have recognised Matthew at all because his head was bandaged, his face was dressed and stitched, and he had tubes enabling his body to stay alive all around him.
Doctors found that Matthew had suffered four severe skull fractures to the back of his head and a crushed brain stem from the blows he had received. The blow that had inflicted the brain stem injury was around his right ear and that ear was almost removed from his head.
The severe brainstem damage, affected his body's ability to regulate his heart rate, body temperature, and other vital functions. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face, and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate.
What is also terrible, is that whilst in the hospital it was discovered that Matthew was HIV positive, and his parents found out that way. Thankfully, Officer Fluty tested negative as she had either no gloves on or faulty gloves on when she cleared Matthews air ways in an effort to help him.
So Matthew is in a coma in the hospital, his prognosis due to his head injuries is not positive. And four doors down in the same hospital is one of the absolute shit holes that put him there. Aaron McKinney.
are you joking?
Unfortunately not, and whilst he has a head injury too this is nothing compared to the injuries, he’s given Matthew. It seems a good time to talk about these butt nuggets in a little more detail. I’ll be brief.
Aaron McKinney was 22 & Russell Henderson 21, the same age as Matthew; both young men who had not had easy lives.
Henderson’s mother was a chronic alcoholic who had been repeatedly beaten by his father. McKinney had spent much of his childhood alone, left by his mother with his grandparents, who locked him in the basement to keep him out of trouble.
They had previous for burglary, driving under the influence and other petty crimes. Aaron Mckinney had quite the reputation around town, He was a well-known troublemaker and was regularly in fights. Henderson's criminal career isn’t too dissimilar, but he is noted by most as being the follower to McKinney’s leader.
After attacking Matthew, McKinney and Henderson returned to town. McKinney proceeded to pick a fight with two youths, Emiliano Morales, and Jeremy Herrera. The fight resulted in head wounds for both Morales and McKinney.
Police officer Flint Waters arrived at the scene of the fight. He arrested Henderson, searched McKinney's truck, and found a blood-smeared gun along with Shepard's shoes and credit card.
At the hospital, another officer would comment on the amount of blood covering Mckinney in relation to the head wound he had suffered.
McKinney and Henderson were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery.
Five days after the attack, on October 12 at 12:53 a.m. at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado with his family by his side. Matthew Shepard died: never regaining consciousness.
The charges are upgraded to murder. The manner of his killing – which the New York Times likened to the Western custom of nailing a dead coyote to a fence to ward off intruders –stoked the perception of Cowboy Country as a danger zone for gay people. and it sparked national outrage.
President Bill Clinton condemned the attackers as "full of hatred or full of fear or both".
Candlelit vigils were held throughout the Country even the world and Matthew became famous, the poster boy for a sincere struggle.
Matthew’s memorial service held at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming on October 16, was attended by over 700 people (many had to stand outside in the snow) and included friends and family from around the world. Those fuckers notorious protestors at the Westboro Baptist church turned up however, including Fred Phelps himself, who picketed the funeral with homophobic signs.
It garnered immense media attention that brought Matt’s story to the forefront of the fight against bigotry and hate.
I am trying to keep this brief; it is an alleged mini after all so I’m going to quickly cover the charges and the trial.
Detectives involved with the case advised how the defendants had said that they had identified Matthew as a robbery target and Henderson had pretended to be gay to lure Matthew out to their truck. They also said that Mckinney had attacked Matthew after he had put his hand on McKinney’s knee.
The defence tried to use the Gay panic defence - arguing that McKinney was driven temporary insane by alleged sexual advances by Matthew. This defence was quite rightly rejected by the judge.
The gay panic defence is strongly debated and for clear reasons – as it stands it has been banned in a lot of states in America but not all. Here in the UK it isn’t accepted although it go’s by a different name, the Portsmouth or guardsman defence.
McKinney's lawyer stated that the two men wanted to rob Shepard but never intended to kill him, but as we mentioned that’s not gonna fly with the level of violence involved.
Prosecutors argued that the killing had been premeditated, driven by "greed and violence", rather than by Shepard's sexual orientation and that they had in fact pretended to be gay in order to gain Matthews trust.
On April 5, 1999, Henderson avoided going to trial when he pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping charges. In order to avoid the death penalty, he agreed to testify against McKinney and was sentenced by District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell to two consecutive life terms.
The jury found McKinney not guilty of premeditated murder but guilty of felony murder and began to deliberate on the death penalty.
Matthews parents actually brokered a deal to get that off the table, I’m not sure I would be so forgiving. McKinney received instead two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Henderson and McKinney were incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and were later transferred to other separate prisons because of overcrowding.
So they were not charged with a hate crime, as that wasn’t possible under Wyoming’s criminal law at the time. And obviously that’s controversial in itself not just in Matthews case.
Matthews story incited people to wake up! it precipitated a national backlash against hyper-macho culture and implicit tolerance of homophobia.
Politicians and celebrities pledged support and funding to combat anti-gay hate crime and after lengthy wrangling in congress, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard Act in 2009, a law which defined certain attacks motivated by victim identity as hate crimes.
Judy and Dennis Shepard set up the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which campaigns for gay rights, funds educational programmes as well as an online community for teens to discuss sexual orientation and gender issues. Lots of good work going on there.
There is a small aside I want to add here and that is that some of Matthews friends say that he would perhaps have been uncomfortable with being placed on this pedestal, that he wouldn’t have liked being made out to be this poster boy or Martyr. Matthew was openly Gay, but he was also said to be discreet and reserved about his sexuality as well, I get what they mean from what I have read about him however I think he could perhaps be comfortable with his fame in terms of all the good its done for people like himself.
A book was released in 2013, called The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths about the Murder of Matthew Shepard and it is written by Stephen Jimenez. Stephen, who is openly gay himself spent 13 years interviewing more than 100 people with a connection to Matthews case.
His conclusion is that Matthew’s murder was not a hate crime, but could instead be blamed on crystal meth, a drug that was flooding Denver and the surrounding area at the time of Matthew’s death.
This theory has, understandably, caused a lot of anger.
Jimenez has been accused of being a homophobe and a revisionist, a criticism usually reserved for extreme right-wing ideologies.
From his research Jimenez found that Matthew was addicted to and dealing crystal meth and had dabbled in heroin. He also took significant sexual risks and was being pimped alongside Aaron McKinney, one of his killers, with whom he’d had occasional sexual encounters.
“Aaron and Matthew had a friendship. They’d been involved sexually, they bought and sold drugs from each other. That complicates the original story of two strangers walking into a bar and targeting Matthew – someone they did not know – because he was gay.” “But that isn’t what happened.
Matthew’s drug abuse, the fact that he knew one of his killers prior to the attack, the rumour that the killers knew that he had access to a shipment of crystal meth with a street value of $10,000 which they wanted to steal. was never explored in court.
McKinney has never acknowledged that he knew Matthew, but Jimenez found a dozen sources that had seen them together.
A police officer who worked in the department also added that some of the officers they worked with had caught Mckinney in a sexual act with another man, in the past but didn’t confirm if it was Matthew.
Whether you believe this new narrative or not nothing in this book takes away from the iniquity and brutality of the crime or the culpability of Matthews murderers.
I do feel as it is always important to look at all aspects of a case to get a full, broad view of the facts. The truth is important.
even so, it doesn’t change things, it doesn’t and won’t change legislation or how people feel about Matthew or his story, it doesn’t for me – I just think it no doubt hurts his family.
I’m going to close by saying that whilst he is still a ‘martyr’ in inverted commas - Matthew doesn’t need to be the only face that represents a cause, he isn’t the only person who has been the victim of a hate crime and sadly won’t be the last.
Alex Rodda
(by D)
The crime I’m going to tell you about is complex, some may liken it to a hate crime, others would say it’s a case of child abuse, grooming a paedophilia whilst many focus on the blackmail and the fear of exposing someone's sexuality.
This case is a recent one and from the UK, Knutsford, Cheshire in December of 2019. It involves 18-year-old Matthew Mason a mechanic, and his victim 15-year-old Alex Rodda. Yes, He was just 15 at the time of his death and he was in his final year at Holmes Chapel, where he has many friends.
Everyone who speak of Alex says what a nice guy he was. Alex was openly gay and supported by his family and friends – of which there was many. Alex was super close to his mum, even as he got older, he was the type of person who would say 'I love you' at the end of every phone call. Even if his mates where listening. He was confident and outgoing. He had a part time job that he loved, and he was popular with everyone the worst anyone had to say about him was that he could be naïve.
So now I’ll tell you about Matthew, I sometimes think it's easier to understand people actions when they come from a horrible background or have exhibited signs of what's to come but we can't do that here because – despite the horrid act he goes on to commit Matthew also seemed to everyone – like a nice lad.
He grew up on Ash farm with his Millionaire parents, and two sisters, he went to Holmes Chapel Comprehensive school and left at age 16. He got nine GCSEs and went to Reaseheath College. In 2019 he was in his final year. He said he intended to work on his family’s farm and enjoyed mending the farm machinery.
In November 2019 he said he started receiving messages from Alex, and he would later come to admit that it was these messages that made Matthew start to question his sexuality – he thought he might be bisexual. It’s not disputed that Alex was the one to initiate contact it was not rebuffed by Matthew and the two started an exchange that escalated quickly.
Matthew sent Alex Nudes and videos of himself masturbating. Alex being younger and under the age of consent knew that Matthew could get in trouble for this. There exchanges where secretive – but Alex who was open about his sexuality and supported by his friends and family had no qualms telling his mates who he was messaging, I wonder if it were an ego boost having this older guy into you – I assume from his point of view at the time it could have been. From statements that his friends have given – it seems to be like that. So, whilst Alex wasn’t bothered about people knowing who he was messaging, Matthew had a girlfriend whom he had been with for two years, he was part of a farming community that he felt wouldn’t accept him being bisexual plus the fact that Alex was a minor < which seems to be forgotten at points in the reporting of this case> in short Matthew would do anything to keep the relationship a secret.
Things start to get really tricky for Matthew when Alex goes to follow him on Instagram you see at this point Alex didn’t know about Mathew's girlfriend. Alex then tells Matthew that the “interactions” they are having should stop and he messages Mathew's girlfriend Caitlyn telling her that he had exchanged flirty messages and that Matthew had sent him pics. Ending the message with “I’d let you know before he does a d***head move and I didn’t know he was dating you until I went to go follow him on Instagram.
This led to an argument between the couple, and she actually split up with him. Despite being single Matthew didn’t want anyone else to know what had been going on, so he began paying Alex to keep quiet. I tried to find a source I could verify that says who initiated the payment. I have read that it was in fact Matthew who offered to send money to Alex so Alex would keep his secret although I honestly couldn’t find this anywhere legit. I do know that whilst some of the message exchanges between Alex and Mathew have been recovered equally many have been lost making it impossible to get a full picture of what was going on.
But we can't be sure that Matthew added Alex as a payee on his banking app and started sending him money.
and it’s not small amounts of money, is it?
no he was dropping 100s at a time and still meeting Alex to engage in sexual acts.
Now Alex had told some of his mates about this and they had told him to get out. These messages about the situation are easily available to read online but essentially, Alex is bragging about all the money he’s getting as he tells him mates, he’s being paid for sex, he then goes on to say that if Mathew stops paying him, he will just go to the police, it seems quite dark to be speaking so light-heartedly about this now and some of his mates didn’t seem to think it was that funny and they told him that it was black mail and not safe. Now I remember being 15 and thinking I was in control of situations that now I look back on only to realise the where dangerous, so I understand why he felt he had the upper hand.
Yeah, you think you are invincible...
over a period of 3 weeks Matthew paid Alex over £2000. The more money Matthew paid the more Alex asked for. The way this is reported is that Matthew was terrified of people knowing he was gay however I’m not sure that sits right with me because whichever way you look at it legally Alex is a child and Matthew is an adult so surely the fear should have come from being known as a sex offender. Matthew was borrowing money off his grandparent...
but was he borrowing money to pay for sex with a child or is he being blackmailed or both – both – but he’s the adult and is already in the wrong, hugely?
December 4th Matthew makes a payment to Alex and the next day Alex is late for school. Phone records show that the pair were likely together. Just a few days later one December 7th Alex's mum comes home to find M in her house, sensing something is off she asks him to leave. Text message between Alex and a friend reveal that she had actually disturbed them having sex. That evening M transfers A £100. Later that week records show that Matthew googles “what would happen if you pushed someone down the stairs” ‘what happens if you kick someone down the stairs’, ‘everyday poison’, and ‘things that are poisonous.
Shitty things to be googling.
December the 12th Alex tells one of his friends that the guy he is seeing wants to take him somewhere secret and that it seems a bit wired.
Lisa Rodda, Alex’s mum, tried to call Alex at 9.24pm, but no cell site data was recorded, meaning his phone appeared to be disconnected. By this Time Matthew Mason was in the pub After leaving the pub and returning home, he had received messages from Alex's friends and family asking where he was?
Matthew told everyone Alex 'went into Manchester' with friends, but didn’t say who the 'friends' were, "I dropped him off in Holmes Chapel at 6, he said he was going to Manchester with some friends. I haven’t seen him since." Alex was reported missing to the police at 11.22pm, and amazing police work here - At 12.35am, Mr Mason received a text message from the police asking him to contact them.
that’s super quick policing, I feel like they must have got good leads from friends of Alex’s.
Alex Rodda's body was found in a lane in the Cheshire village of Ashley shortly before 8am on Friday 13th December. There was never any question as to who was responsible, and the police were quick to gather evidence against Mathew.
yeah, he didn’t cover it up very well did he...
No not at all, he was remanded in custody to appear again before Chester Crown Court on 20 April BUT THEN COVID HAPPENED AND IT WAS PUSHED BACK THEN adjourned for the second time – this time due to Mason having to self-isolate after coming in close contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid-19. The trail only really began this past December 2020 the trail was long and detailed and included a break over Christmas – trail notes are online if you know where to loo a certain forum in particular – although I’ve done my best to fact check the following.
Prosecutor Ian Unsworth alleged that Mason lured Alex to the woods ‘on the pretence of sexual activity’ but instead launched a ‘brutal’ attack. Mr Unsworth said: ‘Alex did not stand a chance. His life ended in those woods. ‘His partially clothed abandoned young body was discovered by a team of refuse collectors early the next morning.’
The jury was shown CCTV footage and telematics data detailing the movements of Mr Mason’s car - from leaving Alex’s home at 5.25pm until the vehicle arrived at the wooded area near Ashley. Detective Constable Kerry Booth said the Renault Clio arrived in that area at 5. 43pm.Jurors were shown CCTV images of the vehicle travelling away from the area at 6. 25pm.During that time Matthew had attacked Alex with a spanner that he had brought with him, hitting him 15 times, and fracturing his skull, then leaving him to die.
"The mobile phone of Alex Rodda has not been recovered to this date."
The court heard that Matthew drove to a nearby farm, said to be the address of a friend. Jurors heard he then sent a text to his mum, which read: "I'll be home about 8.30." He then called a friend and drove to the Red Lion pub, arriving at 7.12pm, M sat with two people with a 'drink in front of him', before taking a 'selfie' and posting a screenshot of the picture into a WhatsApp group, Det Con Booth said.
During the trial Matthew admitted that - - 'my actions caused the death of Alex Rodda'
When asked about his sexuality, Mr Mason told the jury:
I’ve never had any trouble with my sexuality before.
I’ve always been straight and been in relationships with girls, but after a couple of weeks of receiving messages from Alex Rodda, I started questioning this and thought I was bisexual. Even after me and Caitlyn separated after Alex Rodda messaged her, I still carried on seeing her, we met up a few times and I stayed around her house.
When asked how the situation made him feel, he said:
After the relationship with Caitlyn broke down, I felt depressed. When the relationship fell apart, we’d been together nearly two years, we had some happy memories together. It still upsets me now. In the coming weeks up until the events of December 12, I started struggling sleeping.
Matthew went on to tell the jury that he asked friends and his manager for money to help with the payments to Alex.
I was embarrassed, I thought they wouldn’t accept me for what happened. Because what me and Alex had done together, they wouldn’t understand why it happened and they wouldn’t accept me if I were gay or bisexual. I didn’t think at the time any of them would. When asked if he was ‘quite happy to pay’ Alex, he said: “On some occasions when it was small amounts, I was quite happy. Alex did say he would pay me back at some stage.”
He also confirmed having sexual activity with Alex on three occasions, once on November 5 and twice on December 7.
During the trial the prosecutor told the jury how on 12th December, Matthew went to the college as normal that day, before picking Alex up from a street near his house, the court hears.
Alex had Face Timed his friends that afternoon. He told one how it was 'weird' that the defendant wanted to take him to a 'special or secret place in the forest'. The prosecutor reminds the jury of CCTV evidence which captures Alex leaving his house. He then sends a Snap chat picture with a 'double love heart emoji' from Matthew Mason's car, within 30 minutes of that photo being sent, Alex had been bludgeoned to death.
So was he trying to get manslaughter because he never denied killing Alex?
exactly, Matthew said that he took the spanner to scare Alex but that he had no intention to use it, he only used it in self-defence claiming that Alex attacked him! However, the majority of Alex's injuries were focused on the back of Alex's head; at least 15 injuries to the head along with here was bruising to the hands which could have been 'defensive in nature'.
"The overall pattern of injury was indicative of a violent, repetitive assault with a blunt weapon.
During the trial Matthew himself indicated that what he did was 'disproportionate' to 'whatever threat Alex' provided, Mr Unsworth QC says.
To me the case of murder seems clear, it was premeditated, what do you think?
So with a 10-2 majority jury the verdict of guilty was reached. At the moment of the verdict, the family of Alex Rodda cried out and embraced. Matthew burst into tears.
He was to be sentenced Jan 25th, 2021, at his sentencing the judge said “Although I accept, he may have initiated contact with you, I am sure you not only responded to it, but actively encouraged a sexual relationship by sending him messages and the image you sent him of your erect penis and a video of you masturbating. In that regard, you clearly encouraged your young victim to involve himself in what was clearly his first real sexual experience. In other words, you groomed him"
I’m so glad this aspect of the case was acknowledged! Mathew Mason was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 28 years.
HOWEVER.
This month this month his jail term reduced by two years because of his age and previous 'good character'. Lawyers representing him submitted that the original prison term was 'too much for a young man of this age'. Appeal judges agreed and said they believed the previous ruling was made in error when considering Mason's age, level of maturity and previous 'good character'. They quashed the original sentence and handed Mason a fresh sentence of 26 years.
And that is the case – obviously and understandably the Rodda family are angry at the recent ruling speaking to Cheshire live Adam Rodda, Alex's dad said "I've been to Chester Crown Court and now Mold Crown Court and I continue to hear my son being maligned by the person that groomed him, abused him and murdered him.
"If he's not too young to have murdered somebody, then he is not too young to take the sentence.
"I just felt it was a joke."
Sad. Very sad. I hope that this is the last we hear of Matthew Mason, and I hope it’s a long 26years for him.
Sources
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/dad-murdered-alex-rodda-fumes-20901660
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9713317/Murderer-Matthew-Mason-sees-life-sentence-reduced-two-years-successful-court-appeal.html
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/teenager-trial-accused-murdering-cheshire-19411520
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/alex-rodda-murder-accused-didnt-19429506
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3oYYFY8jXI
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7804923/Millionaire-farmers-son-Matthew-Mason-18-court-charged-murdering-boy-Alex-Rodda-15.html
https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/08/man-bludgeoned-schoolboy-lover-to-death-for-threatening-to-reveal-relationship-13717151/
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/fateful-messages-led-alex-roddas-19581516
They Walk Among Us Podcast - episode 37.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1999/13/matthew-shepard-199903
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/the-truth-behind-americas-most-famous-gay-hate-murder-matthew-shepard
https://abcnews.go.com/US/matthew-shepard-legacy-gay-college-student-20-years/story?id=27
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laramie_Project
http://www.uwyo.edu/shepardsymposium/matthew-shepard-memorial-group/documents/1999.uw.management.crisis.pdf
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/matthew-shepard
https://www.oxygen.com/uncovered-killed-by-hate/crime-news/matthew-shepards-killers-russell-henderson-aaron-mckinney-hate-crime
https://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/mckinney-aaron.htm
https://famous-trials.com/mattshepard/2503-trial-of-aaron-mckinney-excerpts-from-the-trial-transcript
https://www.stitcher.com/show/morbid-a-true-crime-podcast/episode/episode-149-the-tragic-murder-of-matthew-shepard-part-1-71826528
https://www.matthewshepard.org/about-us/our-story/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd_Jr.
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