Was Alex’s killer planning the murder of more gay men?
A“CUNNING” killer who lured a popular teen to his death could have been plotting to murder other gay men.
Brian Healless, 18, stabbed Alex Davies more than 100 times before burying his body and attempting to hide all trace of their contact.
He then adopted the same calculating tactics used to trick Alex in a bid to arrange meetings with four other males.
His behaviour left prosecutor David McLachlan, QC, asking jurors: “There is a real possibility, is there not, that Alex Davies was not going to be the last victim?”
That jury had been told how the roots of Alex’s murder stretched back 19 days before Healless struck.
On April 10 2019, he searched Google for, among other things, information on how much force was needed to break a skull.
Just over a fortnight later he used Grindr, described as “a social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people”, to start up a conversation with Alex who was gay.
Healless displayed an innocence in his messages that led Mr McLachlan to describe him as “manipulating”, at one point writing: “We can cuddle, just not in public, go to a more discrete spot… I’m not out yet and like to be discrete about it.”
Alex had no idea that, while the pair planned a meeting in Parbold, the village between their hometowns, Healless was searching for information about how to wipe the data from the mobile phone he owned.
The teen, from Skelmersdale, had no idea Healless, who had stashed more than 50 photos of him on his phone, had researched how to create fake GPS locations.
The Home Bargains worker also had no idea that, when he set out for their April 29 rendezvous, Healless was on his way, armed with a kitchen knife.
It was that blade, part of a set bought from Asda, that was used to stab unsuspecting Alex 128 times.
Many of those wounds, several severe enough to have alone proved fatal, were inflicted while he was alive.
Healless then dragged him next to some trees, buried him under branches and began his cover-up.
This started with the theft of Alex’s two mobile phones – a Samsung S9+ and an LG model.
He took them to his Chorley home and deleted the memory of both, hoping this would wipe any memory of their encounter.
By taking them back to Rylands Road before resetting the devices, however, he left a data trail that led all the way back to him.
When Alex’s body was discovered on May 1, detectives from Lancashire police launched a murder investigation and began hunting the person who had struck so violently days earlier.
Healless, unaware his time as a free man was running out, quickly moved on from any feelings he may have had for Alex.
Between April 30 and May 2 he started conversations with four other males on Grindr, inquiring about meeting with them.
In messages exchanged with one, called “Matt”, they arranged to meet in similar circumstances – in a quiet countryside location.
Healless sent him a picture of himself and exchanged messages of a “sexual nature”.
They discussed meeting in woodland, with Healless writing: “Haha, it would be fun, bring