Drug dealer paid a terrible price for crossing 'bosses'

In broad daylight in Bradford city centre, the pair beat, stabbed and kidnapped Jonathan Adamson.

As a warning to other potential police informers they tried to cut his tongue out. From the moment the word reached the streets, Jonathan Adamson knew his days in Bradford were numbered.

According to the rumours, the small-time drug dealer had broken the most sacred of criminal codes - he had turned 'grass' and passed information to the police.

Knowing his underworld bosses would be out for blood, he swiftly hatched a plan to flee the country.

Ruthless Butt and Murgatroyd had employed Adamson as a mobile dealer, ferrying bags of heroin and crack cocaine to addict punters across the city.

As one of a team of couriers working to a shift rota, Adamson was supplied with a car, a mobile phone and 40 £20 'wraps' of drugs.

Once these were sold, he would head back to the operation's headquarters in Steadman Terrace for another shipment before being sent back on to the streets.

And during a typical shift, he would make this return journey many times. It would usually be 12 hours between the first addict ringing at 9am and Adamson finally quitting his shift.

And while he would collect about £1,500 a day through his toils, Butt and Murgatroyd would pay him just three wraps of heroin to feed his own habit.

The pair were careful to put on regular 'shows of strength' to dispel any thoughts employees might have about ripping them off.

In court, Adamson told how he would arrive at Steadman Terrace to find Butt lovingly cleaning and posing with a new handgun.

And he knew Butt's family were not afraid to use them - Naveed's brother Khawar is serving 12 years for shooting a couple outside Bradford's Planet Venus club in November 2000.

As soon as the rumour - which was in fact false - surfaced, Adamson knew Bradford was no longer a safe place.

Only hours before his arranged flight left for Spain, Butt and Murgatroyd received a tip-off he was in the city centre. As Adamson spotted Butt's Vauxhall Vectra in Hall Ings, he made a frantic dash for refuge in the Hilton Hotel.

But Murgatroyd, with a steak knife concealed under his sleeve, caught him by the front doors and in broad daylight, within yards of horrified Christmas shoppers last December, he went about his sickening punishment.

The knife was plunged repeatedly into Adamson's back and body, puncturing a lung and lacerating a kidney. Then, as a stark lesson about the fate of 'grasses', Murgatroyed thrust the blade into his mouth in an attempt to cut out his tongue. By this time, Butt had joined the fray and kicked his head like a football.

Battered and bloody, and on the brink of death, the pair bundled Adamson into the car and drove him to an associate's house where he was dragged down into a sparsely-furnished cellar. There, Butt shoved a cocked gun in Adamson's mouth and warned how he and his family would die if he ever spoke to the police.

Realising that Adamson was close to death and confident he would not name them, the pair finally dumped him outside Bradford Royal Infirmary where he crawled into the building.

When armed officers arrested Butt, he was driving a £15,000 Mitsubishi Shogun and had £18,000 stashed at his girlfriend's house.

But while the rewards were high, Butt, Murgatroyd and Adamson were all playing a very perilous game.

Detective Constable Glen Acornley, the officer heading the case, said: "I think this case highlights the very grave dangers of drug dealing.

"It is very ruthless business and a double-edged sword. On one hand you have the risk of being arrested and serving very long jail sentences. On the other, you face the distinct possibility from others in the chain above you who will stop at nothing to protect their interests."

He said dealers like Butt and Murgatroyd relied on the fact that nobody would dare to speak out against them.

"To get these people off the streets, we need people to come forward, anonymously if needed, with information about their activities."