A British man wanted in his homeland to face charges for his alleged involvement in a brutal 2003 killing on Friday lost a constitutional court case to repeal an extradition order.
Christopher Guest More, 41, who spent time on Europe’s ‘most wanted’ list, had been arrested in Malta last June after almost 16 years on the run. A court in Macclesfield had issued a European Arrest Warrant to bring him into custody in May 2004, with an alert on the Schengen Information System issued in May last year.
Guest More is wanted to face charges over 14 offences including murder, false imprisonment, grievous bodily harm, kidnapping and illegal restraint.
UK authorities accuse him of the murder of cannabis farm owner Brian Waters in Cheshire in June 2003. Guest More is facing a possible life sentence for his alleged part in the murder. Three other men are all serving life sentences.
Waters had been tortured and beaten to death in front of his two adult children, who were forced to watch the murder at gunpoint. Together with the other men, Guest More is accused of launching the attack at the remote property in order to demand money.
Last June the magistrate’s court had ordered his extradition but his legal team filed a civil case claiming that their client’s fundamental human rights will be breached if he was extradited to the UK. The First Hall of the Civil Court in January ruled against Guest More, dismissing all his claims of human right breaches.
He subsequently filed a constitutional court case to appeal the judgment but Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi, Mr Justice Giannino Caruna Demajo and Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, presiding the Constitutional Court, dismissed the claims too, exhausting all local legal avenues preventing his extradition to the UK.
The court said that it could not conclude that if Guest More spent his pre-trial detention at a prison in Manchester, he is at a real risk of suffering inhuman and degrading treatment. Although it is evident that there still are matters that need to be addressed in order to improve the living conditions for prisoners in HMP Manchester, it said there is no evidence to suggest that he will suffer inhuman treatment.
The court, therefore, dismissed his claims and ordered that he be extradited to the UK to face the charges he is wanted for.
Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Rene Darmanin were defence counsel.