Three teenage boys who appeared in court yesterday charged with the murder of another teenager were alleged to have copied the film Reservoir Dogs in making an attack on him.

The three, two aged 15 and one aged 16, lured 15-year-old Michael Moss from a care home on to a playing field at night, it was said at Liverpool crown court.

They attacked him, stripped him naked and carried out a "sustained and violent assault" over a period of two hours. They stamped, punched and kicked Michael, known as Mossy, over his entire body, it was alleged.

"This was a murder which involved systematic and extreme violence, violence for its own sake," said Anthony Gee QC, prosecuting.

"Michael Moss was quite defenceless and overwhelmed. The injuries inflicted on him included an attempt to cut off his ear. The defendants, it seems, were acting out a scene from a violent film called Reservoir Dogs, according to what one of the defendants said later."

Mr Gee told the jury the attack, in November last year, had been sparked by jealousy. The defendant who spoke of the Reservoir Dogs link said he believed Michael was going out with his former girlfriend.

The three boys, all from Merseyside and all now 16, cannot be named for legal reasons. They all deny murder.

Mr Gee told the jury: "The case is appalling in many ways, you may think, not least because of the ages of these children, but also because of the very manner of the attack which they inflicted of Michael Moss."

He asked jury members to steel themselves before showing them photographs of Michael's body and a video of the scene on the playing field.

Michael had suffered bruises, fractures and flesh wounds to his entire body, the cuts possibly being caused by the neck of a broken bottle, the jury heard.

There were deep cuts to his feet which had not bled, proof that they had been inflicted after Michael had died and his circulation had stopped, Mr Gee added.

The video showed his blood splattered across the climbing frame and over the ground.

"The attacks delivered to Michael's head were such that he suffered a separation of two vertebrae in his neck," said Mr Gee. "This was not a spontaneous outburst of violence. There was a degree of pre-meditation on the part of at least two of the defendants."

The trial continues.