A woman has spoken for the first time about her relationship with a man she later discovered was on the run for murder.
Stella Paris, 35, spent almost a year living and sleeping with Christopher Guest More, 43, who she thought she would one day marry.
The former radiographer had no idea he was one of the most wanted and dangerous men in Europe who had killed a dad in front of his children.
Stella told the Daily Star how she lived in a luxury mansion with More who once worked as an undercover TV researcher for the BBC.
The pair first met while she was working as a stripper in her native Malta – nine years after he and four other men murdered fellow Brit Brian Waters in June 2003.
More allegedly hung the 44-year-old upside down by the ankles, beat him with bamboo canes and burns him with melting plastic at a farm in Cheshire while Waters' children watched on helplessly.
The dad's head was also dunked in a barrel filled with filthy water as he dangled upside down during the four-hour attack over a £20k drug debt, a court heard.
Waters eventually died of multiple injuries including fractured ribs, heart bruising, and a bleed to the brain.
Harrowing police images show the barbaric torture chamber with a staple gun, a chair and ligatures still attached.
More later disguised himself under the name Andrew Lamb and fled to Malta where he lived a life of luxury and met Stella in May 2012.
Stella has now bravely opened up about what it was like to date More and later discover he was a killer.
"It took me a whole year to process the fact that I had been living, eating and sleeping with someone whose real name and background I didn’t know," she said.
"The fact he was a murderer shattered me. The details of the torture horrified me and was hard on my mental health.
"Oh god, you have no idea how it affected my life. It caused me not to trust people. How can you know who someone really is?"
Stella recalled a dark encounter where More asked her to make him boiled eggs for breakfast and then threw them at her because they were too runny.
She told how she was wrestled to the ground after she said she would leave him and then went to her mum's house with a bruised wrist.
More was finally arrested in Malta by Interpol in 2019 and he was jailed for life in December for killing Waters.
Before facing justice, he struck up a relationship with Stella after they met at a Maltese strip club.
Stella, then 26, had quit the medical profession to become a dancer when she came across More who she originally perceived as arrogant and egotistical, she said.
But he later apologised for her behaviour and became "very different" and charming when he would visit her at night, she claimed.
The dancer said More used to carry a big stash of money admitting "that’s what attracted me to him initially."
Eventually, he convinced Stella to go stay at his apartment so he could cook her breakfast and the pair became "really in love and lust," and quickly moved in together she said.
More would flaunt his wealth by taking Stella to expensive restaurants and the couple even got a French bulldog called Zeus, she said.
She considered her new boyfriend to be shrewd businessman who was a motivated and positive thinker with a visionary attitude towards making money.
"Some people will say how could I not have known he was a criminal, but I didn’t because he was extremely well spoken, an entrepreneur, very posh and we used to eat in the best restaurants and he had a certain etiquette," she said.
More was allegedly working behind the scenes on a movie with Tom Hanks when he met Stella and would sail the boat they were using.
She described it as "a life I could once only dream of" before learning More was a disturbed man but not for the reasons she thought.
Stella told how she would comfort More as he used to have terrible nightmares and said she knew there was something wrong but not that he was a criminal.
"I thought maybe the nightmares meant he was abused in the past. I used to tell him he could talk to me about anything and I wouldn’t judge but he said he couldn’t talk about it and that I'd leave him if I knew the truth," she added.
Despite the warning signs, Stella said she fell for More and their relationship progressed with More meeting her family and the couple moving into a secluded mansion in 2013.
But he grew extremely controlling, according to Stella, and would ban her from taking photos, using social media or talking about holidays abroad.
She told how he would hide his face with his long "surfer" hair when he went out and ask not to be on social media.
Still working as a dancer, Stella wondered if he was "ashamed" to be seen with her and said he judged her saying "it wasn't a classy job."
But she remained in love with More and "worshipped him" despite his verbal abuse and controlling behaviour towards her which made her feel she could not survive alone, she said.
The relationship eventually ended in July 2013 and Stella moved to London for a new life.
She told how she had threatened to break things off many times before but of her struggle to leave the mansion and the dogs behind.
But it was not until another six years later when Stella finally learned the truth about the monster she wanted to marry.
She told of having dinner at her parents' home in 2019 when her mum told her that her ex was on the news and a criminal.
When she was shown the article, Stella said her heart started racing and she spent days in tears and shock, breaking out into a rash and dropping to just 6.9st.
"I was trying to piece it all together... I spent a whole year with this person. Now I have finally come to accept it and I want to tell the public and share my story," she said.
