JURORS have been sent home after a second day of deliberations in the case of a Nelson drug dealer accused of brutally torturing and murdering his ‘runner’.
Christopher Moore, 45, is said to have died after something was pushed so far up his anus that it perforated his bowel.
Atif Muhmood, 39, is alleged to have extracted Mr Moore’s teeth and injured his scrotum before carrying out the fatal attack.
Jurors at Preston Crown Court have heard how Mr Moore dealt drugs for Muhmood to feed his own habit.
But David McLachlan QC, prosecuting, said there had been complaints from Muhmood’s customers that the bags of heroin he was selling were ‘light’.
Muhmood suspected Mr Moore was dipping into the bags himself and pledged to ‘sort it’, the court heard.
In the days before his death, several witnesses noted how Mr Moore had been sporting black eyes and appeared jaded.
One neighbour called in police after hearing sounds she associated with a man being attacked, at Mr Moore’s Derby Street home, the court heard.
Jurors heard how Mr Moore had been found dead on June 20 last year. Initially it was thought his death may have been drug-related, before a Home Office post-mortem examination revealed the extent of his injuries.
Gaias Gozem QC, defending, said police called to the scene later reported that a transom window had been left open, allowing anyone to come or go undetected into the property.
Mr Gozem also recalled how a number of implements found in the house contained the DNA of both Mr Moore and a third man, with whom he had been having a relationship.
Mr McLachlan, in his closing speech, told jurors that Mr Moore had suffered 58 different external injuries, by the time of his death.
He added: “This was a case of persistent and sadistic torture, the prosecution says.”
CCTV footage captured Mr Moore leaving his Derby Street home up to 18 times a day, before his death but this slowed remarkably just before June 20.
Mr Moore was a former roofer who had ‘fallen on hard times’ after losing his job and had turned to drink and drugs, the court heard
Muhmood denies murder. Jurors were sent home this afternoon by trial judge Mark Brown and will continue their third day of deliberations tomorrow.
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