Three key figures in Christopher Guest More Jnr’s conviction

Here, three key figures in his capture and the painstaking investigation into the brutal torture killing have shared the story of how he was finally brought to justice.

Detective superintendent Sarah Pengelly

The head of Cheshire Police’s major investigation team, DS Pengelly led the manhunt for Christopher Guest More Jnr.

She has since retired from the force.

“With the cooperation of the National Crime Agency, we escalated Christopher Guest More Jnr to Europe's most wanted list in May 2019.

“The fact that we had been able to put him on Europe's most wanted list meant that our reach and the extent of intelligence that we might be able to generate was broadened significantly.

“We recognised that we were looking for a needle in a haystack essentially.

“But being able to essentially reach into almost every law enforcement agency in Europe and really push forward and ask for intelligence and information about who he was, who he was representing himself to be and what identity he had was a real game-changer for us.

“From his escalation to Europe's most wanted, we got a few pieces of critical information.

“We were able to work with international colleagues to develop that information, and ultimately he was found living under an assumed identity – the identity of Andrew Lamb – in Malta, and he was then swiftly detained by our colleagues in Malta.

Christopher Guest More Jnr's fake passport

“What we know is he presented himself to be a prosperous, successful businessman.

“He was essentially involved in import and export, and he also had a role as a yacht captain – all of which was under his assumed identity, and he established himself in the community.

“He had a partner out in Malta, and to all intents and purposes he was an affluent businessman living a luxury lifestyle.

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“Being a successful businessman and a yacht captain meant that there was always going to come a time where somebody would tell us where he was and who he was living as, so perhaps that was his downfall.

“The impact on the families and the impact on the community has been huge.

“We have remained committed to bringing Christopher Guest More to justice.

“We had to be patient, because sometimes we were faced with a dead end.

“But we continually reassessed and revisited our information, and ultimately my message is that when you are responsible for crimes like this we are going to come for you – we will never give up, we will be relentless and we will pursue you until we bring you to justice.”

Nicola Wyn Williams

Ms Wyn Williams was the reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service in the case.

“This is a case that has spanned my career.

“I was a new prosecutor back in 2003 when the murder happened, and it was a case that all the lawyers in the area knew because of its size, its complex nature and because of the unique features connected to the TV producer aspect of it.

“It was a big case back then – it was the first time I'd ever heard of cell site mobile phone evidence being used in such a way in a trial.

“So it was a case that I knew of, and then to get the call 16 years or so later to say that the defendant had been arrested and then be allocated the role of reviewing lawyer was quite overwhelming to start with – certainly when the 64 boxes arrived containing CPS files from previous cases.

“A lot of the original officers who were involved in the first investigation are no longer in the force, so we really were a fresh pair of eyes.

“We had to start all over again with it and unpick boxes, unpick the evidence and unpick the items of unused material and build everything back together for as strong a case as we can possibly get.”

Detective inspector Kate Tomlinson

DI Tomlinson was the senior investigating officer in the case itself and led the team who gathered evidence against More in order to secure his conviction.

“It's a horrific murder.

“This is Cheshire, it's quite a quiet, rural area where the murder happened and you wouldn't expect anything like this to happen.

“These men suffered four hours of torture, they have been hung upside down from the rafters – the nature of what's happened to them, the beating that they took, the scale of what's happened is absolutely horrendous.

“You see this sort of thing in the movies.

“The Waters family have moved away from the area, and it has affected them from that day to this.

Brian Waters

“They have remained very insular and haven't been able to move on with their lives – they have remained very scared to this day, because somebody has been outstanding for the murder of their husband and father.

“They are scared of repercussions and have compared it to Covid, where people have had to stay in and stay home – they say that they have lived like that since 2003.

“The children have said they have been unable to form any sort of relationship with anybody - they all still live together to this day, suffer flashbacks on a daily basis and they have just been unable to move on with their lives.”