JURY members were today (Monday June 27) considering their verdict after the retrial of a caretaker accused of allowing historic wartime tunnels near Kinver to be used as a cannabis factory.

Worcester Crown Court was told police found 900 cannabis plants, which could produce a yield worth £70,000, growing in part of the Drakelow Tunnels complex at Wolverley in November 2013.

The prosecution alleged Wayne Robinson, who had been caretaker of the network of tunnels since the 1990s, must have been aware of what was going on.

Robinson, of Marlpool Lane, Kidderminster, however, has denied allowing the production of a controlled drug while he was managing the site.

The 48-year-old claims he rented the tunnel to two men, known only as Thomas and Fabian, for £200 a month for storage and never suspected drugs were being produced there.

He was in tears during the trial, when he told the jury his tenants, from the Black Country, had threatened to "bury him" in a dispute about keys to the complex after he gave them notice to quit because of rubbish they left lying around.

Judge Abbas Mithani QC, summing up to the jury before they retired to consider their verdict, said members of the public, police and press had attended events at the tunnels - where there was a plan to create a museum - and none had noticed any smell of cannabis.