November 29, 2000 18:34: The cold-blooded murder of the son of prominent Tory Irwin van Colle has shocked councillors.

Giles van Colle was shot in the back by an unknown gunman behind the optician's shop he ran last Wednesday.

He was due to give evidence in a fraud trial in Hertfordshire. A man there was questioned about the killing, but later released.

Giles shared a Wembley home with his father, the deputy Conservative leader on Brent council, and mother Corinne, a leading light in the Jewish League of Women.

Reg Colwill, a spokesman for the Tories in Brent, said he visited the family, and said the murder was "devastating" for them.

"I couldn't help tears coming to my eyes," he said. "I'm a father as well."

Mr Colwill described Giles as "a lovely boy, bubbly with a good sense of humour".

A post-mortem at Northwick Park Hospital confirmed the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso.

Giles was found slumped half inside his M-registration Ford Fiesta at about 7.30pm in a service road behind the shop he has run for the past year, GVC Optometrists in Mill Hill Broadway.

Passers-by who called paramedics believed he had suffered a heart attack, although the police also received 999 calls from residents who thought they heard gunshots.

Detectives have not ruled out robbery as a possible motive, but do not believe it was a racist attack.

Irwin van Colle, who represents Barnhill ward on Brent council, has been a councillor since 1982.

By.Ted Bridges