A father-of-two died in a four-hour torture session in front of his children, the trial of an undercover TV researcher who fled the country after the murder has heard.

Brian Waters, 44, was beaten, tied up and suspended upside down in the 2003 attack at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, near Knutsford, where he had a cannabis farm, Chester Crown Court heard on Wednesday.

Lymm man Christopher Guest More Jr, who was discovered in 2019 living in Malta under an assumed name, is accused of being one of at least six men who carried out the violence at the farmhouse.

The jury has been told the attack was carried out over a £20,000 drugs debt.

Nigel Power QC, prosecuting, said Suleman Razak, who helped at the cannabis farm with the Waters family and was also tortured, had given a "chilling" account of what happened during the incident on June 19 2003.

Mr Razak described being attacked, tied up and suspended from rafters into a barrel which was filled with fluid, then having plant food poured over his body, a pillowcase on his head set alight, and a staple gun used on his feet and body.

He later saw Mr Waters being pushed into the farm's cow shed and beaten with garden canes, before being suspended upside down and struck again with canes and a metal bar, then tied to a chair where the attackers held a binbag over his head and set it alight, causing it to melt on to his head.

The court heard that Mr Waters' children, Gavin, then 25, and Natalie, who turned 21 the day before her father's death, later arrived at the farm, where they were tied up by the attackers and asked: "Where's the money?"

Mr Power said at one point Natalie heard her father saying he could not breathe.

He said: "She really panicked and said her dad needed (to go to) hospital.

"She said he had a lung problem, but she was ignored."

She later saw him being cut loose and carried out of the shed, appearing limp, jurors were told.

Mr Waters' wife, Julie, was at the family home in Nantwich when men arrived at the door and searched the house for money.

When they found nothing, they forced her into a car and drove her to the farm, the court heard.

The jury has been told that Mr Waters owed money to drug dealer John Wilson, who is one of three men who have already been convicted of Mr Waters' murder.

More, who carried out undercover work for TV companies, had helped Wilson to locate Mr Waters' cannabis farm and been involved in stealing cannabis and equipment from there before taking part in the attack, the prosecution allege.

More, 43, denies the murder of Mr Waters and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Waters and Mr Razak.

The trial continues.