A Cheshire undercover television researcher fled the country to start a new life after torturing and murdering a father of two on a cannabis farm, a court heard.
Christopher Guest More Jr., 43, is charged with the murder of cannabis dealer Brian Waters, 44, who was tortured and killed on a drug charge in a Knutsford farmhouse.
On Tuesday, a jury at Chester Crown Court heard that Mr Waters was killed on June 19, 2003 in a disused cattle shed on Burnt House Farm in Tabley while another man, Suleman Razak, was being tortured.
Mr. Waters’ then 25-year-old son Gavin and daughter Natalie, 21 the day before her father’s death, were also at the farm, while his then 42-year-old wife, Julie, was kidnapped from her family home in Nantwich and there was brought to justice it was said.
Prosecutor Nigel Power QC said three men – John Wilson, James Raven and Otis Matthews – were convicted of murder and conspiracy by Mr Waters to inflict serious bodily harm on him and Mr Razak following trials between 2004 and 2007.
He said: “This defendant, Christopher Guest More Jr., the man you are supposed to try, fled the country on June 21, 2003 and escaped capture for 16 years until he was discovered in 2019, a new life under an assumed one Name to bear Malta. ”
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The jury was told that More, who was 25 at the time and residing in Lymm, was involved in undercover television programs and worked extensively with Raven, his cousin.
In 2002, More and Raven were asked by a production company working on Channel 4’s Dispatches that was filming a show about reclassifying the drug to locate a covert cannabis farm.
Mr Power said, “But even though they said they had found an illegal cultivation in what is sometimes referred to as a cannabis farm, that path has not been followed and the program has been transferred without work from Mr More or Mr Raven.”
The court heard that Mr Waters had started a cannabis farm with his friend Mujahid Majid, known as Johnny, in June 2002.
Mr Power said, “The farm was established on Burnt House Farm in Tabley, the area where he was ultimately to be murdered.”
The judges were told that Mr Waters also had a cannabis farm in Holland where he would travel regularly and broker deals for other people, including drug dealer Wilson, who is now 71 years old.
Mr Power said Mr Waters owed Wilson money and at some point had to work to repay £ 20,000 that was confiscated from him when he traveled back from Holland.
Mr Power said, “If we tell you shortly about drug trafficking, you will hear that John Wilson was a drug dealer and from time to time supplied cocaine to these defendants.”
More denies the murder of Mr. Waters and the conspiracy to inflict serious bodily harm on Mr. Waters and Mr. Razak.
The case continues.
