The shooting of Salford gangland figure Paul Massey was ‘stone cold murder’, a court has been told.
Massey, 55, was gunned down back in July 2015 outside his Salford home, however with lack of evidence, no one was arrested for the murder.
Almost three years later, in May of this year, a known associate of Massey – John Kinsella – was shot in Liverpool.
The similarities between the two murders led police to believe the crimes were committed by the same person/people.
Stephen Boyle, 35, and Mark Fellow, 38, are jointly accused of both murders and the attempted murder of Kinsella’s partner Wendy Owen.
The court heard that a Garmin Forerunner watch belonging to Fellows was a key piece of evidence in the case against the accused men.
This type of watch worn by keen runners and cyclists has a GPS function enabling routes to be recorded, along with other information such as pace and distance.
Describing Massey and Kinsella, Paul Greaney, QC, for the prosecution, opened the trial yesterday by saying: “Each was well known, if not notorious, with the gangland of the North West and both men undoubtedly had enemies.
“Their undoing has to do with the events in the city of Salford, where serious violence broke out between two criminal gangs in 2015.”
The Prosecution continued to outline the brutality of Massey’s killing: “Mr Massey ran for cover behind some bins and was able to use his mobile telephone to call friends and the emergency services, but the gunman pursued him, discharging further rounds from a Uzi sub-machine gun into Paul Massey’s body, killing him.
“The gunman fled across the road, behind the church and away through open ground to a path running alongside a railway line. What happened was stone-cold murder.”
Police had failed to charge anyone with the killing of Massey, known as ‘Mr Big’, until after the Kinsella shooting. The murder of Kinsella re-opened the case, with new evidence coming to light and highlighting the similarities between the two crimes.
Mr Greaney said: “Unlike three years earlier, on this occasion, the killer was undone.” He went on to explain that there were “clear parallels” that suggested the same killers carried out both murders.
The use of the aforementioned Garmin watched ,used by runners, showed that a few months before the murder of Massey, the wearer of the watch had travelled from his home to the area behind a church in which the killer lay in wait for his victim on July 26, 2015.
It showed, police say, Fellows on a “reconnaissance run” for the planned gangland hit.
Mr Greaney told the jury a painstaking review of CCTV systems was critical in the investigation and was to “unlock the case” as it showed Boyle and Fellows in the area at the time of the murder.
The case will continue at Liverpool Crown Court for 6-8 weeks.
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