A Bradford drugs dealer, who executed the "bully" he worked for by blowing out his brains with a double-barrelled shotgun was jailed for life yesterday.

Nicholas Hickson, 32, (pictured) who claimed 6ft, 18 stone Philip Smith made his life a torture for three years, blasted him in the head from three feet after thinking about how he had treated him and his family.

He then dragged the body from under the wheels of his van so he could make his getaway and dumped his clothes, the gun and cartridges and Smith's mobile phone and car keys in a pond, before driving back to his mother's house.

Yesterday, on the ninth day of his trial at Leeds Crown Court Hickson, a plumber and heating engineer of Royds Avenue, Birkenshaw, dramatically changed his plea to guilty after originally denying murder.

It followed a ruling by the judge, Mr Justice Holland, that manslaughter on the grounds of provocation was not a defence.

The judge told Hickson, who showed no emotion as he was sentenced to life imprisonment, that he and Mr Smith, 29, "abandoned the law and went for a situation where might was right".

He added: "Up to February 19 last year he had might on his side. On that night, you had might. The result is he is no longer here and you are facing life imprisonment."

Mr Justice Holland told Hickson that ''...on that evening you executed Philip Smith.''

"He was lying at your feet, he was dying, it was too good an opportunity to miss.

"You reloaded that gun, you aimed at his left ear, you pressed the trigger twice so as to fire from the upper barrel. That was murder and that leaves me with but one sentence to pass."

Earlier, Hickson had told the court: "I don't specifically remember reloading. I just remember standing over him. I thought 'you've put me through hell, threatened my family.' I just shot him, pulled the trigger." He said that before the meeting he had not intended to fire the gun to injure Mr Smith, of Highfield Road, Pudsey - at worse he thought he might have to discharge it into the air.

Cross-examined by prosecutor Franz Muller QC, who had claimed the murder was revenge, "a final settling of the score," Hickson said there was no excuse for shooting Mr Smith, it was not an accident and he was trying to kill him.

The judge told Hickson that pleading guilty was in his favour, even though it came late in the proceedings.

He said he would also draw attention, in his report on how long he should serve in jail, to the fact that Mr Smith had treated him very badly indeed.

He added: "Because of you he is not here to give his side of the matter, but I am satisfied there is sufficient evidence to give quite significant support to your story."

But he went on: "The report will also give attention to your sustained and cynical refusal to heed the law.

"The overriding impression is of someone who really does not care about the law at all, only about your particular interests at any one time. It is for that reason you got into this appalling situation."

Mr Justice Holland recommended that Detective Superintendent Allan Doherty and that his police team be commended by the Chief Constable and he also ordered the forfeiture of £9,000 by Hickson.

After the case Det Supt Doherty said the behaviour of Mr Smith in 1999 was "appalling" but Hickson chose not to report the assault to police. He said: "Instead he decided to deal with matters himself. This led ultimately to the death of Philip Smith and the conviction and imprisonment for life of Hickson.

"The public must have confidence in allowing the police to deal with these matters and I echo the judge's comments that might is not right and people cannot abandon the law without it leading to fatal consequences."

Mr Smith's family left court without commenting.