Blowtorch torture victim made to listen to dealer’s ‘murder’

Two murder suspects threatened to maim a debt collector’s face with a blowtorch and made him listen to his friend’s blood-curdling screams as they killed him, a court heard today (Wed).

Nicholas Wood, 41, snarled ‘I’m gonna burn your face off’ as he fired up a blowtorch and waved a nine-inch kitchen knife around ‘like a cowboy’ at captive Matthew Wheeler, jurors were told.

Wood’s accomplice Tim Clark, 50, donned latex gloves and grabbed a screwdriver as the pair got ‘tooled up’ to murder 34-year-old drug dealer Terry Wiggins.

Wiggins, known as ‘Ginger Tel’, had asked Wheeler to collect a £420 crack cocaine debt from the two men.

He went round to the flat himself when Wood and Clark rang him with the offer of a laptop and some cash.

But when Wiggins arrived they had bound Wheeler with electric flex in the kitchen.

They then stabbed and beat Mr Wiggins to death and left the bedsit in Lincoln Close, Erith, covered in blood, the Old Bailey heard.

Prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said: ‘Wheeler was able to hear that Terry had arrived as he could hear him screaming in a high pitched way.

‘There was no doubt this was because he was being badly beaten and stabbed until he was lifeless.’

He continued:’Eventually, Tim Clark came into the kitchen with blood all over his hands and said ‘we have to evacuate’.

‘Nicholas Wood followed and said something along the lines of: ‘Why did you hit him so hard,’ confirming that he was also present at the time.’

Describing the lead up to the murder, Mr Badenoch said: ‘Matthew Wheeler was trying to collect the £420 debt and was to receive a cut of the money for his trouble.’

He was not allowed into the flat until around 9pm, when Clark grabbed him and dragged him into the flat before Wood smashed him over the head with a silver dumbbell.

‘In no uncertain terms it was made apparent that his visit was unwelcome,’ said Mr Badenoch.

‘They said things like ‘f**king c**t, I’m going to kill you. You’re going to die.’

Wiggins’ lifeless body was left lying on the floor as the pair left with Mr Wheeler making ‘no attempt’ to call the emergency services.

Mr Badenoch said: ‘The bedsit was left in complete disarray following what must have been a sustained assault as Terry Wiggins fought for his life with these two defendants intent on taking it.’

Wheeler managed to escape and told Wiggins’ long-term partner Cheryl Crane about the attack as the men went on the run.

When police and ambulance services arrived at the scene after 10.30pm they found Wiggins dead and an array of weapons including a blow torch, a large red kitchen knife, blood-stained latex gloves, pliers, wire clippers, a dumbbell, and a blood-stained metal pole.

Wood and Clark’s pit bull Benzo had left bloody paw prints around the flat.

A post mortem revealed that Wiggins had defensive injuries and stab-wounds, bruises, abrasions, and lacerations all over his body.

Wood and Clark were arrested at the Urgent Care Centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Frognal Avenue, Sidcup, southeast London, when they turned up ‘desperate for drugs’ on 19 November.

The men, both of (Flat 1) Applegarth House, Lincoln Close, Erith, southwest London, both deny one count of murder and one count of false imprisonment.