A TEENAGER has admitted murdering his mother's partner after attacking him with an axe and a hammer in their Radcliffe home.

Two men from Bury also pleaded guilty to their part in the killing which was carried out by 19-year-old Ashley Marshall.

He had been asked by his mum Tracy to get rid of 37-year-old Martin Rankin from the family home at Glenvale Close, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Mr Rankin was found with multiple wounds at the house shortly after 1.20am on Christmas Eve last year. He was taken to Fairfield Hospital but was later transferred to Hope Hospital where he died on December 31.

In court last week, Marshall pleaded guilty to murder, while Dale Jones (21), of Walker Street, Bury, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and Babar Hussain (28), of Cornwall Drive, Bury, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit actual bodily harm and assisting an offender.

The court was told that, last December, Mr Rankin had entered into a volatile relationship with Tracy Marshall, who lived at Glenvale Close with four children, including Ashley Marshall.

On the evening of Friday, December 23, Mr Rankin and Miss Marshall had an argument on the way back from a local pub and went their separate ways.

On her way home Miss Marshall was met by a friend Jo-Ann Ramsay, who took her to her mother's house in Radcliffe.

On the way there Miss Marshall spoke to her son Ashley on a mobile phone and asked him to get rid of Mr Rankin from the house.

A short time later Hussain drove Marshall and Jones to Tracy Marshall's house, where Mr Rankin was staying.

He was then attacked with an axe and a hammer in a ground floor back bedroom. Marshall swung the axe at Mr Rankin's head and he was also struck repeatedly with the hammer. He was later taken to hospital suffering from a serious head injury and later died on New Year's Eve.

All three defendants will be sentenced on December 4.