A MAN on trial for playing a part in the brutal murder of Nantwich market trader Brian Waters said he left the scene nearly four hours before the attack began.

Otis Lee Matthews, 26, from Stretford, Manchester, told Chester Crown Court he was at Burnt House Farm where Mr Waters was tortured to death, but only to steal his cannabis plants and growing equipment.

He claims he left the farm in Tabley near Knutsford at 8.30am, and said he had no idea what happened to Brian Waters, his family, or fellow torture victim Suleman Razak.

Mr Waters, 44, of Mainwaring Close, Stapeley, died on June 19 last year after suffering 123 separate injuries during a four-hour torture ordeal, which police say started at 12pm.

Matthews said: "I didn't have any part in what happened to the Waters family and Suleman Razak and I

didn't know about any plans to hold them there and beat them up.

"I was there (at the farm) in the morning, and I left in the morning."

He added that a water bottle and two cigarette ends found at the farm containing his DNA came from when he was burgling the barn with seven other men earlier that day.

He told the court that he left with Christopher Guest More Jnr - also wanted by police in connection with the killing but who has since gone on the run - at 8.30am and was dropped off at his house in Manchester an hour later.

Matthews said: "Chris (Guest More Jnr) asked me if I was ready to leave and I was happy to go because I had done all I had to do - get the equipment and the weed.

"I got into the car with Chris and he took me home to Stretford - I had no idea what the other men were going to do during the rest of the day.

"As far as I was concerned I didn't have anymore work to do and I didn't know anything about the whereabouts of Brian Waters."

Matthews denies murder and conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm to him and Suleman Razak.

The trial continues.