SCHOOLBOY Reece Tansey died because of his attackers’ determination to prove they were tough, a jury has been told.

In his closing speech to the jury following a 12-day trial at Manchester Crown Court, Mark Ford QC, prosecuting, told them that 15-year-old Reece’s death was “essentially callous, stupid and senseless”.

He said that Reece had been goaded into taking part in a fight on Walker Avenue, Great Lever, in the early hours of May 4 by Boy A and Boy B, both aged 15, following a series of social media exchanges in which insults were traded.

During the messages Boy A assured Reece that they would fight with fists, not knives.

Reece turned up to the meeting unarmed but was stabbed six times by Boy A and died a short time later from his injuries.

Mr Ford told the jury Reece had been deceived and lulled into a false sense of security.

“This was never going to be a fair fight or the sort of confrontation Reece expected, or was led to expect, by the defendants,” said Mr Ford.

The jury was told that Boy A and Boy B were so intent on fighting Reece that they tried to find out where he lived and repeatedly pressed a reluctant Reece into agreeing to meet them.

The court was told by Mr Ford that it was the defendants' egos which led to them wanting to seriously injure or kill Reece.

"He died because of their swaggering determination to prove how tough they were," he said.

"They were determined to demonstrate to their peers how their rivals would be put in their place."

Mr Ford stressed that Reece ran away when the teenagers met in Walker Avenue and posed no threat but was chased and repeatedly stabbed by Boy A leaving wounds up to 12cm deep and even chipped a bone.

"When Boy A stabbed Reece he did so with pretty much all his strength" said Mr Ford.

In one message before the fight Boy A told Reece, "I'll make you beg for your life",

"Given what we now know, it makes pretty chilling reading" said Mr Ford.

Mr Ford told the jury that Boy B was just as involved in the killing by supporting and encouraging Boy A, had also taken a knife to the scene and has "consistently lied".

Giving evidence, Boy B stated that he was seen on CCTV running with a peculiar gait because he was trying to put his mobile phone into his pocket, but the prosecution claims it was really a knife he was holding onto.

And Boy B stated that he never saw the 25cm knife Boy A used on Reece at any time.

"This is stretching credulity to breaking point. This account is totally implausible," said Mr Ford.

Giving his speech in defence of Boy A, Richard Wright QC said that the defendants were "on social media talking as if they were two-bit gangsters from the Bronx" and lived in a macho fantasy world.

He told the jury that Boy B was behind the animosity towards Reece and his friend and had got Boy A to "do his dirty work for him".

Mr Wright said Boy A accepts he unlawfully killed Reece but stressed that it was a "wild, unthinking, unfocused decision" to stab him and he did not intend to seriously injure him.

The trial continues.