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Two teens accused of murdering a man in a launderette shared a series of mocking text messages in the hours after he had been fatally stabbed, a court has heard.

In conversations spread by Blackberry messenger, while 19-year-old Sean McHugh lay dying in hospital, one of the accused boys told a friend: "Someone got stabbed up in the launderette".

He went on to say: "Village rats" and added a winky face, the Liverpool Echo reports.

He was asked: "Walton village?" He replied: "Yeah. Shorty and Rocket got beat on."

Nicholas Johnson, QC, told jurors: "It won't surprise you that 'Shorty' was Sean McHugh's nickname."

Later that night the same boy sent a message, saying: "Watch if something we done is in the paper tomorrow on Priory. If we get nicked were goin to jail anyway hahaha."

Another boy then asked who did the stabbing and he named two of the defendants that prosecutors say were armed with a knife and a sword stick.

The following morning another of the accused posted to his Facebook page: "RIP Shorty - we always knew ye was a pussy."

Eleven people "liked" that comment.

In fact Sean McHugh was still alive at the time. He was stabbed at around 7pm on September 30 last year after being chased by a gang on Priory Road, Anfield, in Liverpool, and died from his wounds on October 4.

When one of the boys asked on Facebook: "That kid dead haha" he got a response which Mr Johnson described as "a forecast that was to prove chillingly accurate. It was precisely right".

It said: "He's got three days to live lad," and added a warning not to get himself "ragged by the plod".

Six boys aged 14 to 19 deny a single charge of murder.

Only Reese O'Shaughnessey, 19, of Anfield can be identified as the others are all too young.

(Proceeding)