JURORS have been asked to take the mental health assertions of a man accused of murdering his friend with "a very large pinch of salt."

The trial of 20-year-old Mark Harley Jones, of Chester Road in Wrexham, continued at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday.

He admits causing the death of Kyle Walley, aged 19, but denies murder.

Mr Walley died on July 11, 2021, after being stabbed at his flat in Rhosymedre as the pair drank together ahead of the European Championship football final.

On Wednesday, prosecution and defence counsel delivered their closing speeches to the Jury before Mr Justice Stephen Eyre summed up the evidence they had heard throughout the trial.

John Philpotts KC, prosecuting, told the Jury: "Kyle Walley wasn't an angel, but Morgan Bull (Mr Walley's friend who gave evidence earlier in the week) tells you he was a decent lad.

"He didn't deserve to die when he did, and in the way he did - murdered, the prosecution say - by a man he thought was his friend.

"A man who threatened to kill him, talked about killing him, had gone through the motions of killing him and finally; a man who actually did kill him."

He invited the Jury to take Jones' assertions about his mental health problems with "a very large pinch of salt," adding: "Ignore what the defendant said about hearing voices and experiencing hallucinations, seeing Kyle Walley levitating and speaking to him through the TV telling the defendant to kill people.

"The fact is, nothing this defendant has said about his mental health provides him with a defence to the charge he faces.

"You heard no medical expert's evidence as to his conditions at the time, no medical evidence of diagnoses, no evidence of potential symptoms.

"The prosecution says Mr Jones' account of Kyle Walley trying to attack his neck with a knife is a complete fabrication.

"He claims to have grabbed the knife with his left hand and manipulated it so he was holding the handle - but he has to say that, doesn't he?

"His blood was detected on the handle of what the prosecution say was the knife that inflicted the fatal blow.

"Remember him asking 'shall I just chef someone up' on Snapchat?

"The prosecution says this defendant is desperate for notoriety.

"Does that explain the rather bizarre accent and language used by the defendant after the killing?

"Does he long to be seen as a gangster? As someone to be reckoned with?

"The prosecution say the signs were there - tragically, Kyle Walley didn't see the warning signs."

Andrew Ford KC, defending, told the court his client had cried "real tears, showing he's human" when he'd been giving evidence in person the previous day.

He told the jury that one of the main issues for them to consider would be self defence, explaining: "When someone comes at you with a knife, you have the right to defend yourself.

"It's difficult to weigh up precisely how much force to use.

"The defence says that Kyle Walley went to attack Mark Jones [whilst] holding a knife, Mr Jones got the knife off him in a struggle and during the struggle Mr Jones lunged out at Kyle Walley defensively, and caused the fatal injury.

"They were mates, they had been drinking together before the football and it ended this way.

"This case turns on a moment's incident - on a few seconds which ended a young man's life."

Mr Ford KC referred back to the evidence of Morgan Bull, in which he described his friend Kyle Walley's temper: "When he's angry, it's not a good idea to be near him."

He also pointed to the account of the victim's neighbour who told the court earlier this week of an incident in which Mr Walley threatened him, as well as reminding the court: "He (Mr Walley) had been in trouble for possession of a knife and [on a previous occasion] he was keeping a machete at home for protection."

Mr Ford KC added that had his client pre-planned the killing of Mr Walley, he'd had "the perfect opportunity" to stab the victim in the bare back when it was turned to him during the day of the incident.

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"Two lives and others have been ruined," he told the Jury.

"And to say Kyle lost his temper with Mark Jones is not to blacken his name at all - it's simply to describe what can happen between two teenage men, in the heat of the moment.

"I don't share my learned friend's invitation to ask you to disregard the mental health diagnoses.

"They're not a defence, but they're important and they're real. You saw them written all over his face."

At the start of his summing up of the facts of the trial, Mr Justice Stephen Eyre told the Jury there was no dispute that the defendant had killed Kyle Walley by stabbing him to the chest - but that there were "crucial disagreements" regarding the events immediately leading up to the fatal injury and the defendant's intention that they would have to consider.

The Jury retired to consider its verdict just before 2.40pm on Wednesday.