10:01pm UK, Wednesday August 18, 2004

An undercover reporter for the BBC and Channel 4 has been found guilty of torturing a man to death.        

James Raven, 44, beat, whipped and burned Brian Walters before attacking him with an industrial staple gun while the victim's family watched.

180 BBC television broadcasting

Raven worked for the BBC and Channel 4

Mr Waters, a drug dealer, was then hung upside down and sexually assaulted with an iron bar, causing fatal internal injuries.        

His adult daughter and son were tied up and ordered to watch as the "systematic and barbaric" assault continued, Chester Crown Court was told.        

Raven, of Bolton, Greater Manchester, was found guilty of murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.        

The attack happened in Tabley, Cheshire, last year       

Co-defendant John Wilson, 55, of Glossop, Derbyshire, was found guilty of the same charges.        

Ashley Guishard, 30, of Sale, Greater Manchester, was cleared of all charges.        

The jury was sent home for the night after failing to reach a verdict on Otis Matthews, 27, of Manchester, who has been charged with the same offences.        

Heavily-tattooed Wilson had ordered the attack after falling out with Mr Waters over a debt, the court was told.        

The trial was told that Raven and his cousin Christopher More, who is still wanted by police in connection with Mr Waters' death, earned up to £500 a day working on undercover assignments for the BBC and Channel 4.        

They worked on programmes such as BBC's MacIntyre Uncovered and Crooked Britain, as well as Channel 4's Sleepers, infiltrating gangs involved in car crime and drugs.        

BBC producers employed him because they thought he was a reformed character.        

The jury reached its verdicts after 16 hours of deliberation.