THE "sadistic" killer of a seven-year-old boy whose body was dumped in a wheelie bin has been told he will spend at least 25 years behind bars.

Ronald Mariner stabbed his girlfriend's son, Ryan Mason, five times before battering him with a hammer in February, 2002.

He then stuffed the body in a wheelie bin and pushed it into a ditch at Great Lever and Farnworth golf course.

On Tuesday, a judge set the minimum prison term for Mariner and he was told he had no hope of being released until 2027.

Even then, he will have to persuade a parole board he no longer poses a threat to the public.

Ryan's grandfather, Syd Pickup, said: "As a family we are pleased with the sentence. It is taking a person who we regard as a very dangerous man out of public life for a long tim.

"My concern, however, is that he will never be safe to be released, but that will be a matter for the parole board to decide.

"This has been a weight on our shoulders and something that has been hanging over our heads. There was always an element of concern he would not get an appropriate sentence.

"But, as a family, we have stuck together over the last few years. We could never have given up for Ryan, who was a lovely little lad and will never be forgotten."

Mariner, of Bowland Drive, Johnson Fold, was 23 when he was convicted of murdering Ryan, the son of his girlfriend Lynn Mason.

He was jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court in October 2002 and will remain on "life licence" should he ever be released and be subject to prison recall if he puts a foot wrong.

At the time Mariner was convicted, it was the law that minimum tariffs for murder must be set by high court judges. Mr Justice Poole, sitting at London's Royal Courts of Justice, did so on Tuesday.

He said: "In the early hours of February 11, 2002, the victim went downstairs where Mariner was playing computer games. For reasons which never emerged, Mariner stabbed the boy five times and caused other injuries with a knife.

"He then hit the victim on the head with a hammer, causing a substantial fracture. There was also clear evidence of strangulation.

"Mariner placed the body in a black bag in a wheelie bin and concealed it on a local golf course. At trial, he claimed the perpetrator of the offence was the victim's mother."

Mariner had been having a relationship with Ryan's mother but they were not co-habiting at her home in Great Lever.

He had previous convictions for violence against children including a vicious attack on an 11-year-old boy who he left for dead on the same golf course eight years before he attacked Ryan.

Four years later, he was locked up for 18 months for battering his three-week-old son, Curtis, and leaving him with a fractured skull.

Given the horrific nature of the Ryan's murder, Mariner's "substantial record" of violent offences and the "disturbing if not macabre attempt to conceal the body", the judge said the case called for a tariff at the top end of the scale.

The killing also involved "a gross breach of trust" and Mariner's only mitigation was his relative youth, the court heard.

Although it was not one of those "very rare indeed" crimes which called for a tariff of 30 years or more, the judge said the case did call for "a minimum term very well in excess of the norm".

"I would therefore set a minimum term of 25 years," the judge concluded.

Following a campaign by Ryan's family and pressure from MPs, the Violent and Sex Offenders Register was launched in August. It will allow police to keep track of criminals such as Mariner and alert people living near them before they commit further crimes.

The computer system, which been rolled out to all UK police forces, has almost 50,000 names on it. It holds information on individuals convicted of sex offences or jailed for more than 12 months for violence, as well as unconvicted individuals who are suspected as posing a risk.