A HITMAN who murdered a man in front of his four-year-old son, on the orders of a drug baron, was told today (Tuesday) he must serve at least 32 years in prison. Wayne Collins, 26, of Campion House, Rush Green, shot drug dealer Mark Tredinnick nine times

A HITMAN who murdered a man in front of his four-year-old son, on the orders of a drug baron, was told today (Tuesday) he must serve at least 32 years in prison.

Wayne Collins, 26, of Campion House, Rush Green, shot drug dealer Mark Tredinnick nine times with a World War Two machine gun in a quiet country lane in Romford.

The hit was planned by drug baron Mark Osborne, from his prison cell. He and his brother Tony, who helped organise the hit, were also given life sentences on Tuesday. All three were found guilty of murder last week.

Car dealer Terry Sherman, 28, of Longbridge Road, Barking, was acquitted and walked free from the dock. He admitted driving a van to the scene of the murder but denied knowing anything about the plot.

All four had denied murder.

The Old Bailey was told Tredinnick was killed in front of his partner, Kerri Ann Shanahan and their small son.

Mark Osborne and Collins stormed out of the dock shouting obscenities as the impact statement of Ms Shanahan was read to the court.

A woman was removed from the public gallery as she said: "You are making out a drugs dealer to look like he is innocent."

The court had heard Collins told the victim as he lay dying: "That was from Mark. You're not so clever now."

A cellmate later overheard Osborne laughing about the killing.

The court heard Mr Tredinnick, known as Trill, had previously lived the high life selling cocaine and had done time in jail. By the autumn of 2006 he was heavily in debt to the Osborne brothers who ran one of the biggest dealing rings in Essex.

They thought he had been involved in the burglary their flat in which �200,000 worth of cannabis and �50,000 in cash had gone missing.