TV researcher ‘fled country after murder’
AN undercover TV researcher fled the country to start a new life after the brutal torture and murder of a father-of-two at a cannabis farm, a court has heard.
Christopher Guest More Jr, 43, is accused of the murder of cannabis dealer Brian Waters, 44, who was tortured and killed at a Cheshire farmhouse over a drugs debt, the court heard.
On Tuesday, a jury at Chester Crown Court heard Mr Waters was killed in a disused cow shed at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, near Knutsford, on June 19, 2003, and another man, Suleman Razak, was tortured at the same time.
Mr Waters’ son Gavin, then 25, and daughter Natalie, 21, were also at the farm and his wife Julie, then 42, was abducted from their family home in Nantwich and taken there, the court was told.
Nigel Power QC, prosecuting, said three men – John Wilson, of Glossop, James Raven, of Radcliffe, and Otis Matthews, of Stretford – were convicted of Mr Waters’ murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to him and to Mr Razak following trials between 2004 and 2007.
He said: “This defendant, Christopher Guest More Jr, the man you are to try, fled the country on June 21, 2003, and for 16 years evaded capture until 2019, when he was discovered living a new life under an assumed name in Malta.”
The jury was told More, who was 25 at the time and living in Lymm, had been involved in undercover work for television programmes, often working with Raven, his cousin.
In 2002, More and Raven were asked to locate a cannabis farm for covert filming by a production company working for Channel 4 show Dispatches, the court heard.
Mr Power said: “But, although they said that they had located an illegal grow, what is sometimes called a cannabis farm, this avenue was not pursued and the programme was transmitted without any work from Mr More or Mr Raven.”
The jury was told Mr Waters also had a cannabis farm in Holland, where he would regularly travel and broker deals for other people, including drug dealer Wilson, now 71, to whom he also owed £20,000.
Mr Power said: “You will hear that John Wilson was a drug dealer and provided this defendant with cocaine from time to time.”
Mr Power said mobile phone evidence from nine days before the murder showed the defendant, who was described as a private investigator, appeared to drive to the Waters’ home and follow the victim’s son Gavin to Crewe and then to his father’s cannabis farm, which Mr Waters had kept secret from Wilson.
Phone records show More called Wilson while following Gavin Waters, the court heard.
More denies the murder of Mr Waters and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Waters and Mr Razak.
● Proceeding