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| Funeral for Salford's 'Mr Big' takes place with armed police on standby | Funeral for Salford's 'Mr Big' takes place with armed police on standby |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Armed police were on standby in Salford on Friday lunchtime as hundreds gathered for the funeral of the city’s “Mr Big” amid a simmering gang war. | Armed police were on standby in Salford on Friday lunchtime as hundreds gathered for the funeral of the city’s “Mr Big” amid a simmering gang war. |
| Security boss Paul Massey, 55, was shot dead as he stepped out of a silver BMW car outside his home in the Clifton area of Salford last month. | Security boss Paul Massey, 55, was shot dead as he stepped out of a silver BMW car outside his home in the Clifton area of Salford last month. |
| He was blasted four times by an assassin wearing military-style clothing in the apparent gangland hit. | He was blasted four times by an assassin wearing military-style clothing in the apparent gangland hit. |
| Mourners lined the streets to the church for Massey’s funeral in Salford as a pipe band led his funeral carriage, which was pulled by four white horses, followed by eight black limousines. | Mourners lined the streets to the church for Massey’s funeral in Salford as a pipe band led his funeral carriage, which was pulled by four white horses, followed by eight black limousines. |
| Inside his carriage were two huge floral tributes: ‘Grandad’ and ‘Salford legend’. | |
| A pub near the church had homemade banners on display, saying ‘RIP Paul Massey, Respect’. Many mourners wore white shirts and jeans, as requested by Massey’s family, for a man who was said to have never worn a suit. | |
| The father of five was a well-known figure in Salford, and had been involved in security firms operating in Manchester and beyond. His fearsome reputation grew during the drug-fuelled 1990s rave scene in Manchester, which proved lucrative for those providing security for the city’s clubs and pubs. | |
| Related: As Salford buries its Mr Big, his gang want revenge and the turf wars grow | |
| His cortege left the street in which his late mother and father once lived in the Ordsall area of inner-city Salford, where Massey made his name, before travelling the short distance to the high-rise Salford shopping centre, for the service at St Paul’s church, surrounded by a warren of streets and high-rise flats. | |
| Mourners arrived in a variety of cars, including a chauffeur-driven black Rolls-Royce, exchanging handshakes with mourners. Hundreds had gathered at the entrance and applause rang out as Massey’s coffin was carried from the carriage into the church for the start of the service. | |
| Former Glasgow gangster, Paul Ferris, a gun-runner turned author, is expected to be among those attending, and the notorious Charles Bronson, said to be Britain’s most violent prisoner, is believed to have sent a wreath after the pair became friends in jail. | |
| Massey had first been dubbed “Mr Big” by a local councillor in Salford following civil disturbances in the city in the 1990s, and was later jailed for 14 years for a savage knife attack outside a nightclub in Manchester city centre. | |
| But in 1999 he was sentenced to 14 years after stabbing a man in the groin, severing an artery, and apparently leaving him for dead outside a club in Manchester. | |
| After the attack Massey fled to Amsterdam, but was extradited. Since his release from Frankland prison in County Durham, he is believed to have been involved in the security business and to have invested in property. | |
| Police have increased patrols in Salford following his murder amid fears that already-simmering gun violence in the city could spill over. |