Christopher Guest More retrial over Brian Waters’ murder begins

Christopher Guest More Jnr, from Lymm, is accused of murdering Brian Waters in front of his own children during a harrowing four-hour ordeal nearly 20 years ago.

Jurors failed to reach a verdict following a previous trial at Chester Crown Court earlier this year, with a retrial having opened on Wednesday, November 3.

The court heard yesterday, Thursday, that the 44-year-old victim was killed in a disused cowshed at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, near to junction 19 of the M6 for Knutsford, on June 19 2003.

Mr Waters, who was operating the site as a cannabis farm, was hung upside down by his ankles, beaten with weapons and burned with melting plastic in front of his own children over a £20,000 drug debt.

He was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of his injuries.

Brian Waters

More, who was aged 25 at the time of the incident, is said to have been part of a gang who travelled to the site in the early hours and ransacked the grow before torturing Suleman Razak – who assisted in the operation of the farm – when he arrived at the scene at around midday.

Mr Razak was punched and kicked in the face numerous times and knocked unconscious before being hung upside down by his ankles and lowered into a barrel which was filled up with water.

After being electrocuted, he was burned with acid, had a pillowcase placed over his head and set on fire and was attacked with a staple gun.

It was then that Mr Waters arrived at the scene and was similarly set upon.

He too was lowered into the barrel of water and beaten with bamboo canes with such ferocity that they snapped, as well as being struck with a metal bar.

A bin bag was also suspended above his head and set alight, causing melting plastic to drip down onto his head.

His son Gavin and daughter Natalie, who had celebrated her 21st birthday the previous day, then attended and were attacked – with the latter having the barrel of a gun placed in her mouth.

At the same time, the Waters’ family home in Nantwich was raided by two men who then transported the victim’s wife Julie to the farm.

Burnt House Farm as it looks today

But the assailants fled when the police arrived simultaneously, with officers discovering Brian Waters’ lifeless body in a milking parlour.

A Home Office post-mortem investigation recorded a cause of death of multiple injuries – including fractured ribs, a broken nose and breastbone, a bleed on the brain and bruising to the heart.

Evidence of strangulation was also found, while he had suffered burns to his back from a ‘caustic substance’ and had been attacked using the staple gun across his head and body.

Prosecution barrister Nigel Power told the jury that the more than 100 internal and external injuries suffered by Mr Waters ‘demonstrated the determination of those involved to extract money from him’.

Several items discovered at the scene – including a bottle of Sprite, cigarette ends, a glove and human waste – revealed forensic links to the defendant.

Mr Power added: “The prosecution say that Christopher Guest More’s DNA was on the glove found at the entrance to the barn and on faeces, a Sprite bottle and seven cigarette butts found in the Nisa carrier bag close to where the murder took place – which was obviously intended to be removed.

“But the unexpected arrival of the police and the panicked escape of those involved meant that bag and all of the significant scientific evidence was not taken away.

“The accounts of those present at the farm show that all of the men there were eager participants in the torture and terrible violence handed out, most particularly to Suleman Razak and Brian Waters.

“DNA evidence provides compelling evidence that Christopher Guest More Jnr was one of those men.”

Three men – John Wilson, James Raven and Otis Matthews – were previously convicted of Mr Waters’ murder following trials in 2004 and 2007 and were jailed for life.

More returned to his then home at Burford Lane Farm alongside Matthews that evening and flew to Malaga from Liverpool John Lennon Airport two days later.

He was wanted for more than 15 years before being detained in an apartment in Malta on a European arrest warrant in 2019, claiming to be called Andrew Christopher Lamb and possessing false documentation including a British passport in this name.

The 43-year-old was then extradited back to the UK in early 2020 and pleaded not guilty to murder, as well as conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Razak.

A former undercover TV researcher, More admits having been present while associates of gangster Wilson stole the cannabis and cultivating equipment in the hours leading up to the killing but claims to have left the farm before the violence unfolded.

He also denies any prior knowledge of a plot to attack either Mr Waters or Mr Razak.

The trial continues.