A man has been charged with the murders of an underworld ‘Mr Big’ and a mob ‘fixer’.
Mark Fellows was detained after a joint operation between Greater Manchester Police and Merseyside Police.
The 37-year-old is due to appear in court on Saturday charged with two counts of murder in relation to the deaths of Paul Massey and John Kinsella.
Manchester’s most notorious gangster Paul Massey (left) and his alleged enforcer John Kinsella (right)
Fellows is is also charged with attempted murder after Kinsella’s partner was shot at as she fled the scene of his killing in Merseyside last month.
Kinsella, shot dead earlier this month in St Helens, had been a mob fixer who once stopped a gangster terrorising former Liverpool FC footballer Steven Gerrard.
John Kinsella carried the coffin at Paul Massey’s funeral in Salford in August 2015 (pictured)
The 53-year-old died after being shot while walking his dog with his partner on a footpath, near to the St Helens Linkway and the M62 motorway at 7am, on Saturday May 5.
He had served time in jail for his part in a £41,000 robbery in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 2006.
Massey stood to be mayor of Salford in 2012 but couldn’t shake off his gangster links
Massey, 55, gunned down outside his home in July 2015, was a well-known figure in his home city of Salford and had been involved in security firms operating in Manchester and beyond.
Father-of-five Massey died in a hail of bullets as he stepped out of a silver BMW car outside his home in the Clifton area of Salford almost two years ago.
He was blasted four times by an assassin wearing ‘military-style’ clothing for the apparent gangland hit.
His fearsome reputation grew during the drug-fuelled 90s rave scene in Manchester.
Five other people arrested this week have been released under investigation.
Fellows is due to appear at South Sefton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
John Kinsella, was a known gangster in Manchester and Liverpool but came to the world’s wider attention when a famous name gave a character reference when he was charged with tying up a security guard during a £41,000 robbery.
Former England and Liverpool Steven Gerrard and his father, Paul, were happy to vouch for the defendant’s character in an open letter to Lincoln Crown Court.
Steven Gerrard, pictured with his wife Alex, was used as a character witness for Kinsella who saved him from a man who allegedly threatened to shoot him in the legs
Kinsella, the jury heard, had earned their gratitude by persuading a notorious criminal, George Bromley Junior, known in Manchester as ‘Psycho’, to call off a campaign of intimidation and extortion against the footballer.
A friend said at the time: ‘Bromley is a complete nutcase. He threw a brick through Stevie’s car window, chased him through the streets of Liverpool in his car and threatened to shoot him in the legs’.
The self-styled enforcer Kinsella then ‘took steps’, as he euphemistically put it to the court, and Bromley paid heed.
Steven’s letter, signed by his father Paul, said: ‘We were at our wits’ end when we were introduced by a family friend to John Kinsella’, adding: ‘From that time we have never had any more problems from the Liverpool underworld’.
But unfortunately for the well-meaning Gerrards their supposedly reliable friend ran straight out of the court grounds to flee custody during a lunch break.
Kinsella was then convicted of the robbery without being there and handed a 14-year jail sentence, which he later served around half of.
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