A BOLTON schoolboy, aged seven, was murdered by a boyfriend of his mother and his body dumped on a golf course, a jury was told today.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Ronald Mariner, 23, later tried to blame Ryan Mason's mother Lyn for the killing of her son.

Alan Conrad, QC, prosecuting, said that Ryan, a "lively, sometimes boisterous" boy, had been hit with a hammer, stabbed five times, and had been strangled.

Mariner's fingerprints were found on a hammer and kitchen knife in the house in Hawker Avenue, Bolton, where Ms Mason and Ryan lived and where Mariner had stayed the night.

Mariner was later seen pushing a wheelie bin across the Great Lever and Farnworth golf course in Bolton where Ryan's body was found two days after his disappearance in February this year, Mr Conrad told the jury.

He said that following Ryan's disappearance Mariner, of Bowland Drive, Bolton, had told a series of lies to people, including Ms Mason, about the boy's whereabouts.

Mariner pleads not guilty to murdering Ryan.

Mr Conrad said that in June and July Mariner's solicitors had served papers indicating that his defence would be that he had not killed Ryan but that Lyn Mason did.

"We say that is the final and most monstrous lie by Mariner in an attempt to avoid the consequences of his actions," said Mr Conrad.

Proceeding