THE judge in a gangland murder trial will accept a majority decision from the jury after more than 24 hours of deliberations in the case.

Mark Fellows, from Orford, is currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with the murders of ‘underworld Mr Big’ Paul Massey and ‘mob fixer’ John Kinsella.

He also denies a count of attempting to murder Mr Kinsella’s pregnant partner Wendy Owen.

This afternoon, Tuesday, Justice William Davies – who has presided over the trial, which is now in its 25th day having begun in late November – ruled that he would accept majority verdicts from the jury.

The panel, consisting of eight men and four women, have so far been unable to reach unanimous decisions on all charges faced by 38-year-old Fellows and Steven Boyle – who allegedly acted as a ‘spotter’ during the hits – after around 28 hours of deliberations.

Majority verdicts mean that a jury decision of 10 to two or 11 to one will be accepted in the trial.

They retired to consider the counts faced by the defendants on the morning of Wednesday, January 9.

Tomorrow will mark a week since they began their discussions, with the jury again set to reconvene at 9.45am.

Fellows, of Sandy Lane West, is accused of gunning down Mr Kinsella as he was walking his dogs near to junction seven of the M62 in May last year.

The prosecution alleges that he then shot at Ms Owen during the incident, near to the couple’s Rainhill home.

Three years earlier, he is believed to have gunned down and killed Mr Massey with a submachine gun outside his home in Salford.

Mr Massey and Mr Kinsella were associated with a Salford gang known as the A Team, with the latter carrying the former’s coffin at his funeral.

It is claimed that Fellows and 36-year-old Boyle, of Heywood, were part of a splinter faction of the group – with a dispute between both gangs leading to the murders.

The trial continues.