A DRUG dealer was blasted with a shotgun in the side of his face and neck at a Cornish farm while his accomplice was shot in the back at close range, a court heard.

After David Griffiths, 35, from Plymouth, and Brett Flournoy, 31, from Merseyside, died they were dragged into the back of a van.

The vehicle was then pushed into a pit and everything set alight before the hole was covered with earth.

Thomas Haigh, 26, formerly of Denby Dale, and Ross Stone, 28, are jointly charged with the murders over a drugs dispute with the victims.

Both deny killing the men on June 16 last year at Sunny Corner, Trenance Downs, near St Austell and stand trial at Truro Crown.

The drug dealers were missing for a month before their remains were excavated on July 14.

Stone, who lived at Sunny Corner and worked as a roofer and used a digger, admits disposing of the bodies.

At the start of the trial jurors heard the severity of the fire left the bodies badly charred with parts missing.

On Monday they heard following fresh information from Stone, police excavated a second burial site at the farm containing possible body parts.

Yesterday, Home Office forensic pathologist, Dr Amanda Jeffery said DNA tests confirmed the majority of the parts belonged to Griffiths.

When asked by prosecutor Paul Dunkels, QC, if it would be right to say the wounds to his face and neck would have proved fatal she replied: “It is yes. There are major arteries and veins running down the side of the neck.”

Regarding Flournoy, Dr Jeffery said between 150-200 shotgun pellets were found in his torso and around the thigh area in two separate blasts.

She said he was hit in the back in a “close quarter discharge”.

Prosecutors argue Flournoy and Griffiths were trying to force Haigh to smuggle drugs from Brazil into the UK and Stone was being threatened to repay a £30,000 drug debt.

The court had heard on the night of June 16 Haigh rang a friend of Stone’s to ask if he could stay the night at his house in St Austell because two men had turned up at the farm and one had hit him over the head with a piece of wood.

From the witness box Stone’s friend Raye Watts said Haigh arrived around 10pm and burned a black bin bag in an old oil drum outside the property, claiming it was rubbish.

Under cross-examination from John Elvidge, QC, representing Haigh, Watts admitted he did not tell the police about the burning incident until earlier this month because he was scared.

He said he lied in his initial police statements because he was threatened over the telephone by people looking for Flournoy and Griffiths.

Mr Elvidge accused him of lying about the black bag to protect Stone.

The trial continues.