A MAN accused of the brutal murder of a seven-year-old boy before dumping his body on a golf course once kidnapped another schoolboy on the same golf course, it was revealed.

Ronald Mariner, who denies killing Ryan Mason by bludgeoning him with a hammer and stabbing him, had taken an 11-year-old boy to an adjoining field where he stripped and assaulted him.

Mariner is from a large Blackburn family and lived in the Shadsworth area of the town for many years.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court heard that the previous victim was walking to school across the Great Lever and Farnworth Golf Course in Bolton when Mariner, who was then 15, took him to the field and repeatedly punched and kicked him.

Alan Conrad QC told the jury it was an agreed fact that Mariner had banged the boy's head against a fence, scratched his head and back with a key and grabbed him round the neck and lifted him up in a head-lock.

"He also forcibly shoved his hand into his mouth to stop him calling out when a police car passed by, and forced him to strip naked on three occasions," added counsel.

The victim suffered multiple bruising to the eyes, head and neck, and eventually Mariner pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assault when he appeared at Preston Crown Court in May 1995.

Mariner's previous conviction was revealed as the prosecution continued their case in the murder trial.

It is alleged Mariner murdered Ryan Mason at his home in Hawker Avenue, Bolton, while his mother slept upstairs.

Mariner was a regular visitor to the house and the Crown claim that, after the murder, he wrapped Ryan's body in a bin-bag and pushed him through the streets in a wheelie bin before dumping the body in a marshy area of the golf course.

(Proceeding)