THE daughter of a man tortured to death over cannabis pleaded with his attackers to stop.

Brian Waters' 21-year-old daughter, Natalie, saw her dad close to death and strapped to a wooden chair in a makeshift torture chamber, in a barn at a farm near Knutsford.

She told the men, one of whom was allegedly market trader James Stuart Raven, aged 44, of Parnham Close, Radcliffe, that her dad suffered from emphysema and needed hospital treatment. She urged her father to take deep breaths.

But she was thrown to the floor while Mr Waters' son, Gavin, aged 25, who was tied up, watched.

The court heard that Mr Waters, aged 44, suffered unbelievable pain as he was systematically and barbarically beaten.

Patrick Harrington, QC, prosecuting, told a packed courtroom at Chester Crown Court, that molten plastic had been dropped on Mr Waters' skin. His head, chest and arm had been stapled and a metal rod had been rammed six inches into his body. His left lung had collapsed and almost all his ribs had been broken.

The court heard how Mr Waters complained he could not breathe. Mr Harrington said one of the men then gave him a drink of water as they continued to press him for information about £20,000.

He said: "At that point he was incoherent and close to death." The court was told Mr Waters' breathing got steadily heavier, then stopped.

He was then untied and dumped in the milking parlour at Burnt House Farm, Tabley.

A post mortem examination showed that Mr Waters had 123 separate injuries.

The court was told that Mr Waters had a history of drug dealing. He had been renting the farm in Tabley with another man to harvest cannabis.

It was also alleged he was involved in the supply of drugs with one of the accused -- John Godfrey Wilson, whom he had met through a mutual friend.

It was, the prosecution argued, the result of a 'big' falling out between the pair that led to events at the farm.

Mr Harrington said he had evidence to link three of the four accused in court to the scene.

The court was told that although Wilson was not at the farm on the day of the killing, he had orchestrated it.

The court was told that Mr Waters and his business partner had been paying £1,000 a month to rent the farm from Manchester University.

It is claimed they made about £3,000 from a cannabis harvest every four to six weeks.

The jury heard how a gang of masked men broke into the farm on the A556 on June 19, and ransacked it before stealing equipment and plants.

Suleman Razak, aged 20, who Mr Waters paid to water the plants, was allegedly beaten senseless, dragged across the courtyard, tied upside down to the ceiling beams and then dangled head first in a barrel of stagnant water.

The jury also heard he was given electric shocks as the men laughed.

Mr Waters' wife, Julie, was allegedly kidnapped from the family home in Mainwaring Close, Nantwich, and driven to the scene. She arrived to find her husband dead and her two children tied up. The police, who received a tip-off, then arrived.

James Raven; Otis Lee Matthews, aged 26, of Chisworth; John Godfrey Wilson, aged 54, of Glossop and Ashley Sean Guishard, aged 29, of Sale, all deny murder and conspiracy to cause GBH.

The accused are:

James Stuart Raven, 44, a market trader, of Parnham Close, Radcliffe. The court was told that he had carried out covert surveillance with Christopher Guest More Jnr and he sometimes claimed to be More's cousin.

Otis Lee Matthews, 26, of Melborne Avenue, Chisworth, Manchester.

John Godfrey Wilson, 54, of Marple Road, Glossop, Derbyshire.

Ashley Sean Guishard, 29, of York Road, Sale.

Proceeding

Daughter pleas for father's life