A ruthless assassin who shot dead a Liverpool gangland enforcer was one of three prisoners convicted of stabbing a child killer to death before tucking him into bed to be found hours later. Mark Fellows, nicknamed "The Iceman", was already serving a whole life order for the killings of gangland kingpins John Kinsella and Paul "Mr Big" Massey when he teamed up with fellow killers Lee Newell and David Taylor to stab Mark Bevan to death in November last year.
The Murder in HMP Wakefield
The four prisoners had been serving sentences in the high-security HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire, nicknamed "Monster Mansion", when the murder took place. Bevan, who was serving a life sentence for killing his two-year-old stepdaughter Lola James at their home in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020, was found in bed with 52 stab wounds having been placed in a way that deceived prison guards during checks on the cell.
Fellows, 45, formerly of Sandy Lane West, Warrington, alongside Newell, 57, and Taylor 64, armed themselves with at least one "shiv" before repeatedly stabbing Bevan dozens of times. He was then left "face down, partially covered on his mattress". Leeds Crown Court heard how the three were later said to have been in a "job done mood", with Fellows returning to Bevan's cell to "check the body would not be immediately discovered". The murder took just four minutes and 39 seconds.
The Iceman's Double Life
Dad-of-two Fellows was a fitness fanatic and family man who had an ability to go about his normal life, despite his hideous crimes. When Fellows was convicted of killing Liverpool gangland enforcer John Kinsella, in Rainhill, and Salford's Paul Massey, he had a family home in Warrington. The victims were close friends, killed by Fellows as part of a brutal gang war between rival factions. In both slayings, prosecutors said Fellows was the "stone cold" shooter, and co-accused Steven Boyle, 36, his "spotter". Boyle was convicted of Kinsella's murder but cleared of Massey's.
Fellows emptied 18 rounds from the magazine, spraying an initial burst of bullets before walking up the driveway of Massey's home to make sure he hit his prone target, who dived for cover behind his bins. But he may have never been brought to justice for that assassination if he had not killed again - this time taking out "career criminal" Kinsella, on May 5, 2018.
The Killing of John Kinsella
The dad-of-two, who had a long history of involvement in Liverpool's criminal underworld, was walking his American bulldogs along a country lane, near junction 7 of the M62 at Rainhill, with his pregnant partner Wendy Owen. The unsuspecting pair were approached from behind by a masked gunman wearing a high-vis vest riding a disguised mountain bike, who twice shot Kinsella in the back, dropping him immediately. Miss Owen said she witnessed 'The Iceman' calmly approach her stricken partner and fire two further shots into the back of his head at point-blank range.
Prior to his execution, Kinsella was found to have played a pivotal role in saving Liverpool FC legend Steven Gerrard from a gangster known as The Psycho. The enforcer's role came to light when he was convicted of a £41,000 haulage depot robbery. But after hitting the headlines the underworld figure did not hang around to be sentenced - instead using a brief court break to flee to Amsterdam. While in hiding he even had the audacity to appeal the sentence handed out in his absence. He won, with judges agreeing his jail term was “manifestly excessive” and reducing the 14 year, three month term.
Gangland Connections
During his trial for the 2006 robbery, he relied on the Gerrard family to play a key part in his defence. In an extraordinary courtroom session, jurors were told he was contacted by the star’s family after the former Reds captain was “terrorised” by a mobster known as The Psycho. Kinsella said the man responsible, George Bromley Jnr, was a “violent figure” whose father, another gangland enforcer, had been “executed”. Bromley Jnr's reputation for violence had come to the fore in 2005 when he was jailed for a decade for leading a mob who tortured an addict. Believing he had been double-crossed Bromley and two accomplices broke the leg of their victim with a mallet and burned him with a hot iron before he escaped by diving through a window. It was said he had threatened to shoot Gerrard in the legs.
But the 18st, 5ft 11in, "muscular" and tattooed Kinsella claimed he spoke to George Bromley and from then on Bromley left Gerrard alone. The court was later read a letter from Gerrard’s dad who said that, for two years, The Psycho attempted to extort money from his son – and threatened to “maim” him – until Kinsella stepped in. During the trial of Fellows for the murder of Kinsella, and close friend Massey, it was said how Kinsella had turned his back on the life of crime by the time he was shot dead.
Following Kinsella's killing, a huge police operation began, with detectives being flooded with tip-offs - collecting 47,000 intelligence logs for the Massey murder alone. This resulted in information that 112 people wanted him dead. Information also linked Kinsella and Massey to a Salford gang called "The A-Team", led by a man called Stephen Britton, which was at "war" with splinter group "The Anti A-Team". In court, prosecutors claimed notorious Massey, who was a "mentor" to Britton, was drawn into a feud with the rival group, headed by Michael Carroll. Intelligence also led police to believe Fellows was paid £50,000 for the hit on Massey, who was shot five times on his driveway in Manchester Road, Clifton, on July 26, 2015.
Fellows' Obsession with Hygiene
Fellows, who had a lengthy criminal record from armed robberies to dealing cocaine, was described as being a fitness and health fanatic who was obsessed with personal hygiene. Despite the killing of Kinsella and Massey, Fellows undertook regular day-to-day activities with his family. Just hours before the killing of Massey, the hitman had enjoyed a meal with his partner and their children at the Red Lion pub in Swinton. The footage even captured one of his young children playing with Fellows' encrypted PGP Blackberry mobile phone, which was later tracked by cell-site experts. His uncanny ability to slip on different masks was exposed again after he executed Kinsella.
On Sunday, April 29 2018, Fellows arrived too late to kill the notorious gangster, who was already on the return leg of his morning walk. So he bided his time, working night shifts making sauces for convenience food manufacturer Greencore in Warrington, before setting off more than an hour and a half earlier the following Saturday. On this occasion, he did not miss his target. Fellows was shown leaving Rainhill at speed on his bike on CCTV, before changing his clothes in woods during his journey home. A couple of hours later, he went shopping at the Trafford Centre, where he met his mum and treated himself to a pair of £170 trainers from Tesutti.
While Fellows has now been found to have killed a third man in Bevan, he was never going to be released from prison whether or not he was found to be guilty of the stabbing, with the contract killer already serving a whole life order in prison. Fellows, alongside Newell and Taylor, will be sentenced on Friday.
