A hitman known as "Iceman" who carried out two gangland murders has been sentenced to another whole life order for a third killing while in prison. Mark Fellows, 45, who previously shot dead "gangland kingpins" Paul Massey and John Kinsella, was convicted alongside David Taylor, 64, and Lee Newell, 57, of murdering 33-year-old Kyle Bevan in HMP Wakefield following a trial at Leeds Crown Court.
The Murder of Kyle Bevan
The trio teamed up to kill Bevan, who had been serving a life sentence for murdering his two-year-old stepdaughter Lola James at their home in Wales. The court heard that Bevan was stabbed 25 times in his cell with improvised weapons on November 4 last year. After the attack, his body was placed in his bed, covered with a blanket, and made to look as if he were asleep. CCTV footage from inside the jail showed the three category A prisoners following Bevan into his cell one by one. Once they left the cell just under five minutes later, Bevan was never seen alive again. His body was not discovered until the following morning, hours after his death, despite officers having carried out checks at the door of his cell.
Background of the Offenders
Fellows and Newell were in the West Yorkshire prison, nicknamed "Monster Mansion" because of its propensity to house some of the UK's most despicable characters, serving whole life orders—the most severe sentence in the English criminal justice system, meaning they will never be released. Fellows was behind bars for murdering Massey and Kinsella following the eruption of gang violence in Salford. Hitman Fellows was allied with the city's Anti A-Team faction while "Mr Big" Massey was considered a mentor figure to the A-Team. Massey was shot with an Uzi sub-machine gun outside his own home in July 2015. In May 2018, Fellows brought his kill count to two when he shot Kinsella, who had carried Massey's coffin at his funeral, as he walked his dog in Rainford.
Newell was handed a whole life order in 2013 for murdering child killer Subhan Anwar in HMP Long Lartin in 2013. Anwar, from Huddersfield, was serving a life sentence for murdering his partner's two-year-old daughter. At the time of the killing in the Worcestershire jail, Newell—who has one eye after being attacked himself in prison—had already been serving a life sentence for strangling his neighbor, 56-year-old Mary Neal, to death in Norwich in 1988.
Taylor previously admitted murdering Alisha Apostoloff-Boyarin, who was reported missing by her family in February 2022. Her body has never been found. When a Greater Manchester Police officer attended HMP Frankland in Durham to interview Taylor in July 2024, the incarcerated man stabbed him in the chest with an improvised weapon.
The Sentencing
Appearing back before the same court on Friday, all three defendants were handed a whole life order, meaning they will never be released. Taylor was also sentenced for the murder of Ms Apostoloff-Boyarin and the attempted murder of the police officer. Sentencing, Mrs Justice McGowan said: "It is certainly outside of my experience to sentence someone for their third murder. For two out of three cases in this trial, that is what has happened." The judge added that each defendant took weapons to the scene. She said the three cornered Bevan in a cell, at least two held his arms as he was stabbed 25 times to the neck and torso. "He was left to bleed to death—his last moments must have been terrifying," she said.
Prosecution and Police Statements
Prosecutors told the trial that the trio disliked vulnerable prisoners including sex offenders and those who had committed crimes against children, and claimed they may have wanted to be transferred out of HMP Wakefield. At the time, vulnerable prisoners including sex offenders and those who committed offences against children were free to mix with "main" prisoners in the facility.
West Yorkshire Police Chief Inspector James Entwistle, senior investigating officer, said: "This was a premeditated brutal attack carried out inside a prison by three long-term inmates. Fellows, Taylor and Newell's actions showed a complete disregard for life and for the rules designed to keep people safe in custody. By their very nature, prisons are designed to deny offenders of their liberty, but they also need to be environments that are kept safe from unlawful violence." There had been two other serious attacks at HMP Wakefield in the weeks leading up to Bevan's death, including the fatal stabbing of paedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.
