Facing life, the grinning ‘Iceman’ who shot dead his gangster rivals
A HITMAN grinned in the dock yesterday as he was convicted of the double murder of an underworld Mr Big and a mob enforcer.
Gangland assassin Mark “The Iceman” Fellows, 38, blasted Paul Massey with an Uzi submachine gun outside his home.
Father-of-five Massey, 55, a notorious crime figure, dived for cover but died within minutes after being shot five times in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2015.
Three years later his friend and associate, “Scouse John” Kinsella, 53, a martial arts expert and mob enforcer from Liverpool, was murdered by Fellows too.
Kinsella – who once allegedly helped soccer star Steven Gerrard scare off a gangster demanding money – was killed in a “coldblooded” execution as he walked his dogs with his pregnant partner Wendy Owen.
The couple were strolling near their home in Rainhill, Merseyside, last May when Fellows cycled up and shot Kinsella twice in the back with a Webley revolver – then twice more in the head.
Miss Owen, 41, told Liverpool Crown Court she escaped and watched the killer finish off her partner “like in a film”.
During both killings Steven Boyle, 36, was said to have acted as “spotter” to ensure the victims Hitman Fellows was found guilty
were in place and to provide backup if needed – a charge he denied.
Both victims were murdered as a result of a deadly feud between rival gangs in Salford known as the A-Team and the Anti A-Team.
Fellows, of Warrington, was convicted of both murders but found not guilty of the attempted murder of Miss Owen.
Boyle, of Rochdale, was found guilty of Kinsella’s murder but cleared of Massey’s and the attempted murder of Miss Owen.
Both defendants smiled as the jury foreman returned the verdicts after 31 hours of deliberations.
The case had been turned on its Victim Massey, shot outside home
head half-way through after Boyle grassed on his co-accused.
Fellows said they met through cocaine dealing and chose not to give evidence, which prosecutors said was because he would be “exposed as the killer”.
However Boyle told the jury Fellows had “duped” him into being handed the six-shot Webley used to execute Kinsella.
The victims’ relatives gasped in relief in the public gallery, holding hands and wiping away tears, as the case came to an end.
Police in combat gear carrying Heckler and Koch machine guns had patrolled the corridors of the Boyle turned against co-accused
court during the seven-week trial. Both defendants, who had tried to break out of a court building at a previous hearing, faced sentence by trial judge Mr Justice William Davis today.
Outside court members of the Massey and Kinsella families shook hands and hugged detectives.
In a tribute Massey’s family said the grandad-of-eight, who once ran as mayor, was a loving family man whose personality and “outshone his criminal past”.
His daughter Kelly said: “Our dad, to us, was our dad. Not Mr Big, but a peacemaker who wanted everyone to be friends.”