POLICE have been unable to trace a mystery ginger man who was spotted at the scene of an assassination, a court heard. The unknown man was seen by the only eyewitness to the shooting of Mark Tredinnick, his partner Kerri Ann Shanahan. Mr Tredinnick, 3

POLICE have been unable to trace a mystery 'ginger man' who was spotted at the scene of an assassination, a court heard.

The unknown man was seen by the only eyewitness to the shooting of Mark Tredinnick, his partner Kerri Ann Shanahan.

Mr Tredinnick, 38, was gunned down after turning up to a meeting at Benskins Lane, Romford, on June 1, 2007.

It is claimed that drug dealer Mark Osborne, 29, and his brother Tony Osborne, 27, lured him to his death in the quiet country lane over a �28,000 drug debt.

Bodybuilder, Wayne Collins, 26, is accused of being the hitman, who was wearing a terrorist-style balaclava.

Miss Shanahan has told the Old Bailey how she saw a ginger-haired man drive away with the gunman after the shooting.

It was initially claimed that this man, who had been sitting in a white Astra van at the scene, was car dealer Terry Sherman, 28.

But in his closing speech, Dorian Lovell-Pank QC, representing Collins, asked the jury: "Who is the ginger man?

"He cannot be explained. Terry Sherman has the darkest hair of those in the dock. Nobody has suggested it was a wig.

"The prosecution has been left with this floating person that cannot be accounted for.

"The prosecution say it is not Terry Sherman. Well why was he there? Who was the ginger man in the driver's side of the van?

"Because although the gunman had dressed himself up in a terrorist-type balaclava and with gloves, the man in the van was sitting in the driver's side of the Astra with no disguise or mask on at all."

Jurors have heard that Mr Tredinnick was working for the Osborne brothers selling cocaine.

But Miss Shanahan told the court that he had been cutting it with hayfever tablets.

Mark Osborne, of no fixed address, Sherman, of Longbridge Road, Barking, Collins, of Campion House, Rush Green, and Tony Osborne, of Galley-wood, Essex,all deny murder.

The trial continues.