Murderer Rupert Ross - sentenced to life this week for the execution-style killing of Fulham man Darcy Austin-Bruce - was a drugs baron on the Clem Attlee Estate, it has emerged.

Ross, of Vera Road, Fulham, was given a minimum of 30 years behind bars along with accomplice Leon De St Aubin, of Lucan House, Chelsea, for the gangland murder of Mr Austin-Bruce, of Fulham Court, outside Wandsworth Prison in May 2009.

Detectives working on the case said Ross lost hold of reality as the gangster lifestyle he craved as a teenager spiralled out of control.

He turned to a life of crime despite his privileged upbringing and education at £30,000 a year Dulwich College. The son of shop owner Diana Lank, who runs the Ad Hoc boutique store in Kings Road, Ross was also related to a Cambridge Don and a barrister.

But it wasn't long before he formed a gang, prowling the streets of west London with a knife and stealing car radios. And, aged 17 and already addicted to drugs, he moved into an empty flat on the Clem Attlee Estate, becoming the area's main drugs supplier.

Diaries found by police showed Ross had loved "living a gangster lifestyle, making good money and living a fast life" - and he later admitted he ruled the estate by fear, boasting he'd shot at someone for approaching his front door because he didn't know them.

He and Mr Austin-Bruce had been friends but the relationship sour after the pair became embroiled in a drugs turf war.

Days before his death, Mr Austin-Bruce had shot at Ross in a passing car and it was then the pair set about taking their revenge, murdering Mr Austin-Bruce in cold-blood in daylight outside the prison in front of women and children after receiving a tip-off from a prisoner their victim was visiting an inmate.

On the day of Mr Austin-Bruce's funeral, Ross's best friend, Anthony Otton, was gunned down in Fulham Court in an apparent revenge attack. The killer has never been found.

Sentencing Ross and De St Aubin, who provided the getaway moped for his friend, Judge Martin Bailey told the Old Bailey the pair had carried out a 'meticulously prepared and well planned murder of a man who had become your enemy'. He added the killing was a 'monstrous attack'.