A SUPERGRASS who informed on his associates over the ruthless gangland killing of Tyneside hardman Freddie Knights was sentenced yesterday to 11 years for manslaughter .

Lee Watson, 30, of Cedarwood Road, Gateshead, was allowed to retract his guilty plea to murder and replace it with a guilty plea to manslaughter.

He had earlier given evidence at Leeds Crown Court into the murder of Mr Knights, shot in the head on the doorstep of his mother's home, in Newcastle, in September 2000.

At the end of the trial last month, the gunman who shot Mr Knights, Dale Miller, 38, of Cromwell Avenue, Gateshead, was jailed for 16 years after the jury acquitted him of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter.

Getaway driver Edward Stewart, 39, of Whickham was also cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter, and jailed for 13 years.

Another man, Michael Dixon, 34, of Blackwell Avenue, Walker, Newcastle, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter, but found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent. He was jailed for nine years.

A fifth defendant, John Henry Sayers, 38, of Coquet Terrace, Heaton, Newcastle, was acquitted of murder and all other charges amid chaotic celebrations from his family in the public gallery.

Paul Batty QC, prosecuting, described the jury's verdicts in the trial as "perverse".

Sentencing Watson, the judge, Mr Justice Brown told him: "You are a ruthless and violent professional criminal."