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A man fled the country to start a new life in Malta after torturing and murdering a father-of-two at a cannabis farm, a court has heard.

Christopher Guest More Jr, 43, is charged with the murder of cannabis dealer Brian Waters, 44.

Mr Waters was tortured and killed in a disused cow shed at a Cheshire farmhouse over a drugs debt on 19 June 2003, Chester Crown Court heard.

Mr More denies murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

He also denies torturing another man, Suleman Razak, at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, near Knutsford.

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, James Raven and Otis Matthews - 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 court heard Mr Waters had set up a cannabis farm with his friend Mujahid Majid, known as Johnny, in June 2002.

Mr Power said: "The farm was set up at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, that area where ultimately he was to be murdered."

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.

Mr Power said Mr Waters owed money to Wilson and at one point had to work to pay off £20,000 which was confiscated from him as he travelled back from Holland.

The trial continues.

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