A TEENAGER messaged four males on dating app Grindr within days of brutally killing an 18-year-old man in a remote woodland spot.

Brian Healless, who is from Chorley, tried to meet up with two of the males, after previously stabbing Alex Davies more than 100 times in Parbold Hill, following an agreed rendezvous.

Healless, also 18, admits unlawfully killing Mr Davies, who he had not met before, on the afternoon of April 29, but denies murder.

The prosecution say Healless took a kitchen knife to the scene, where he attacked Mr Davies, from Skelmersdale, and concealed his body, before he rode off on his mountain bike to his home in Rylands Road, Chorley.

Preston Crown Court heard the defendant was arrested at his home on May 3, where police recovered the victim's headphones, mobile phone, and wallet containing Healless's bank card.

Today, jurors were taken through a timeline of the police's investigation, and were told that several factory resets, in which data is wiped, had taken place on Mr Davies's mobile phone in the days following the killing.

A factory reset was also completed on another phone belonging to Mr Davies, which has not been recovered, the court heard.

Examinations of the defendant's phone showed that on April 30, while Mr Davies's body remained undiscovered, he was engaged in a conversation of a sexual nature on Grindr, and also used the geosocial networking and online dating app geared towards gay, bi and trans people to contact a second male the next day.

On May 2 he attempted to set up meetings with another two males, while searches on eBay for an army military folding spade, a shovel and a pickaxe, were made on his computer.

One of those males was asked by Healless to disclose the model of his mobile phone, and was set to meet the defendant on May 3, before Healless told him he could not make it because his bike was "f*****", jurors heard.

Earlier, prosecutor David McLachlan QC went through messages exchanged between Healless and openly gay Mr Davies, before their meeting in Parbold.

In one message Healless says: "We can cuddle, just not in public, go to more discreet spot. Not out yet and like it to be discreet, you know."

Mr Davies later asked Healless if he liked kissing, and the defendant responded: "Well you're about to be my first."

The body of Mr Davies was discovered on May 1 and a post-mortem examination showed the cause of death was multiple stab wounds and asphyxiation.

It was also noted he had been beaten around the head.

The jury was told that more than a fortnight before the killing the defendant made Google searches for "how strong is the back of the skull?" and "how much force to crack a skull?"

Mr McLachlan previously told jurors the issue to determine was whether this was murder or a case of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues tomorrow.