Nick Johnson QC and Dan Travers in double gangland assassination case

January 29, 2019

Exchange Chambers’ barristers were recently instructed to defend in a high profile double gangland assassination case, which finished amid high security at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this month. Paul Massey was shot outside his home in July 2015 with an Uzi sub-machine gun. One of the pall bearers at his funeral, John Kinsella, was then shot with a Webley revolver as he was walking his dogs with his partner in April 2018.

Nick Johnson QC was leading counsel for the first defendant and alleged professional assassin Mark Fellows, while Dan Travers was junior counsel for the second defendant, Stephen Boyle, who was said to have acted as a spotter and means of escape. The trial addressed issues such as the use of Encrochat encrypted telephones, CCTV timing slippage and a cut throat defence. The jury ultimately convicted in three of the six charges which the two men faced. The case received national press coverage.

A number of members of Exchange Chambers’ criminal team are also instructed in a subsequent gangland assassination trial, currently being heard at Manchester Crown Court, concerning the tit for tat revenge violence involving alleged Salford gang members, which included the alleged shooting of a mother and seven year old boy.