The friends of a 16-year-old Scout who died after falling at a North Wales beauty spot warned him the cliff edge looked "dodgy", his inquest has heard.

Ben Leonard, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, suffered a serious head injury after falling about 200 feet from the clifftop of the Great Orme in Llandudno while on the trip with the Reddish Explorer Scouts on August 26 2018.

At his inquest at Ruthin County Hall on Tuesday, assistant coroner for North Wales David Pojur read summaries of interviews with Ben's friends Alex Jamieson, 15, and Christopher Gilbert, 16, who had been with him at the top of the Great Orme.

The boys said they had separated from the rest of the group while walking up the Orme and their Scout leaders had seen them go on a different path.

When they reached the top, Alex and Christopher said, Ben went towards the edge of the cliff and tried to find a route down the hill.

In his interview, Christopher said: "I called him a name for going down this other path because I thought it looked a little bit ridiculous and he teased me for not doing it."

He said he saw Ben traverse the cliff edge and commented it looked "really hairy".

Alex said: "I did not want to go closer to the edge because I was a bit scared of falling off.

"Ben was trying to convince us to come down and Chris said 'it is a bit dodgy'."

The jury heard Christopher saw Ben slip and the pair then ran down the Orme and saw their friend lying on the road.

Scout leader Sean Glaister said he had joined assistant leader Gareth Williams partway up the Great Orme after leaving the group to move his car.

He believed Ben and the other two boys were with the other assistant Scout leader, Mary Carr, and the rest of the group, he said.

When they reached the top of the Orme they spoke to Ms Carr over the phone and she said the three boys were not with her, he told the court.

But Mr Glaister said he was not immediately concerned for Ben, who had completed his bronze Duke of Edinburgh's award, and his friends.

He said: "I wouldn't expect him to take the risk that he did.

"I would have thought he would have stayed with the other two lads no matter what, they were inseparable."

Mr Glaister said when he returned to the bottom of the Orme he received a phone call from Christopher.

He said: "His actual words were 'Ben's fallen off a cliff'."

He said there was no written risk assessment for the trip to the Great Orme, which took place after a planned trip to Snowdon was cancelled due to bad weather.

He said: "If we had have had time somebody would have come up with a formal plan."

Members of Ben's family walked out of the hearing during the evidence of The Scout Association national safety manager Jess Kelly, when she suggested a risk assessment could have identified the behaviour of the teenager and his friends.

When the court resumed after a short break, she said there was evidence Ben had a "stubborn nature", although she later accepted he was a normal teenager.

She agreed some of the association's policies had not been followed in the planning for the trip.

The inquest, which began on Monday, is expected to conclude on Thursday or Friday.