'Gunman' and 'spotter' to learn fate in trial over 'Mr Big' and 'mob fixer' gangland murders
Mark Fellows and Steven Boyle deny murdering John Kinsella and Paul Massey in Merseyside and Salford.
Wednesday 9 January 2019 10:50, UK
Two men charged with the murder of a gangland "Mr Big" and a mob fixer say it is coincidence they were nearby when the victims were killed.
Mark Fellows, 38, is charged with the murder of John Kinsella, a Liverpool gangland enforcer who a court heard was linked to Steven Gerrard when the football star "got into trouble".
Kinsella, 53, was shot while out for a walk with his then pregnant partner Wendy Owen, near their home in Rainhill, Merseyside, on 5 May last year. Shots were targeted at her too, but she escaped and gave birth the day before the trial began.
Fellows, whose nickname was the Iceman, and his co-defendant Steven Boyle, are also accused of the murder of Paul Massey, known as "Mr Big" in the Salford gang world.
Massey, 55, was killed in a hail of bullets outside his home in Salford in 2015.
Fellows is accused of being the gunman in both attacks, and Boyle, 36, of being the "spotter" or lookout.
Both men deny the murders and claim is it a coincidence they were in the vicinity of both shootings at the time.
They also deny the attempted murder of Ms Owen.
The pair have faced a seven week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, with the trial judge finishing summing up the evidence on Tuesday.
The jury, of eight men and four women, has retired morning to consider the verdict.
The trial has heard both victims had a "serious criminal history" and were "notorious" in the ganglands of Liverpool and Manchester.
Despite their pasts, they were gunned down in "stone cold murder", the jury heard.
The victims were associated with Salford gang the A Team, alleged to have been at war with a splinter faction the defendants are claimed to have been in.
The trial resumed at 10.30am when the jury was sent out to consider the verdict.