A MURDER trial jury sat in shock as they heard more details of the alleged horrors that went on inside a house where a father is said to have been tortured to death.

Andrew Gardner’s partner, her brother and her ex-lover are accused of slashing, burning, beating, whipping, kicking and stamping on him for weeks before he died.

Mr Gardner was found to have 21 rib fractures, head injuries, blood poisoning and a chest infection as well as the other wounds, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The 35-year-old was also showing signs of being malnourished when a postmortem examination was carried out by a pathologist, after his death in March last year.

Yesterday, on the second day of a trial, further details emerged of the alleged abuse at the house in Chilton, County Durham.

Jurors wept as they heard evidence about how Mr Gardner was tortured – including having four-letter words scrawled on his body.

On his back were daubed messages such as “You are a f****** bastard” and “I hate you because you are such a f****** idiot”, the jury of seven men and five women was told.

Mr Gardner shared the house in Arthur Street with his partner Clare Nicholls, 28, her brother Simon Nicholls, 24, and her “on-off lover”

Steven Martin, 44.

All three deny murder and face a trial which is expected to last up to three weeks.

In police interviews, they blamed the others to some degree for the injuries.

The court was told that Miss Nicholls weighed and measured food to stop Mr Gardner taking any without her knowledge, and made him face the door while others ate.

He was repeatedly beaten because he told lies, stole food and sometimes nodded off. He was even told he was not allowed to sit on settees, the jury heard.

Pockets had been cut from his tracksuit bottoms so he could not hide anything in them, the court heard, and he was ordered to sleep on newspapers or bags.

The family moved into the house in the summer of 2008, and next-door neighbour Linda Austin said she heard Clare Nicholls screaming as soon as they arrived.

Ms Austin said there did not appear to be any arguments as nobody else in the nextdoor house spoke after Miss Nicholls shouted in her “loud and aggressive” way.

She agreed when asked by Paul Sloan, prosecuting: “Did she appear to be in control of her household, dominating what was occurring in that house?”

The case continues.