AN undercover TV researcher from Cheshire fled the country to start a new life 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, who was tortured and killed at a Knutsford farmhouse over a drugs debt.

On Tuesday, a jury at Chester Crown Court heard Mr Waters was killed in a disused cow shed at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, on June 19, 2003 while another man, Suleman Razak, was tortured at the same time.

Mr Waters' son Gavin, then 25, and daughter Natalie, who turned 21 the day before her father's death, were also at the farm while 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."

READ MORE > More Jr murder trial as it happened

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, which was filming a programme about the reclassification of the drug, 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 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.

Mr Power said: "When we come to tell you about about drug dealing shortly, you will hear that John Wilson was a drug dealer and provided this defendant with cocaine from time to time."

More denies the murder of Mr Waters and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Waters and Mr Razak.

The case continues.