Police ordered to detail all contact with 'Mr Big' in weeks before 'Iceman' Uzi murder Paul Massey, Salford's "Mr Big", was gunned down amid a gang turf war between the A Team and the Anti A Team Paul Massey (Image: MEN Media ) A senior coroner has ordered police to detail all contact officers had with Salford's "Mr Big" in the days before he was assassinated on his own doorstep by "the Iceman". The announcement, which comes nearly 10 years after Paul Massey's death, represents a small victory for his family, who have battled for a full inquest to be held into his death. Massey's family have accused Greater Manchester Police (GMP) of a "cover up" and claims that if a police "threat to life" notice had been handed to him personally eight weeks before his murder, he would have taken steps to protect himself and he would be alive today. ‌ The precise number is a matter of debate, the Manchester Evening News has reported, but Massey received at least five so called "Osman" warnings during his life - from 2009 right up until assassin Mark Fellows, known as "the Iceman", shot him dead with an Uzi sub-machine gun on the doorstep of his home in July 2015. ‌ The murder came in the middle of a Salford turf war between a gang known as the A Team - whose members considered Massey a mentor and elder - and a rival faction, the Anti A Team. Dressed in army fatigues, Fellows peppered Massey with shots and then pursued his target up the driveway of his home to finish him off. Fellows, seen as a gun for hire to the highest bidder, murdered Massey's pal John Kinsella three years later. Fellows cycled up to his target near Rainhill as his target walked his dogs. The assassin shot him twice in the back and then calmly approached his stricken victim to shoot him twice more. Fellows was handed a rare whole life order in January 2019 following a 26 day trial which ended with him being convicted of two counts of murder. Fellows' trial heard police handed Massey formal "threat to life" warnings in April 2009, September 2011, February 2013, and March 2015. The last one was issued as Mark Fellows was plotting his murder. Article continues below Mark Fellows who received a whole life jail term for the gangland murders of Paul Massey (Image: PA ) Massey's family says he also received a threat-to-life warning from Greater Manchester Police in April 2012 - around the time he mounted a failed bid to become mayor of Salford - and that he talked openly about it and took steps to protect himself. His final "Osman" warning was delivered to his home in May 2015 and posted through the letter box. Massey's family believe officers should have made efforts to deliver it personally. The family maintains Massey would never have gone to a funfair with his grandchildren two weeks later if he knew of the threat. ‌ A 2017 internal investigation by GMP cleared two officers who delivered the warning. The officers said nobody answered the door and Massey's partner, when they informed her they had a threat to life warning for him, shouted from a window for them to post it through the letterbox "with the rest of them". GMP's internal investigation found Massey was handed five "Osman" warnings in his life, but said there was no record he received another one - as his family claims - during his failed 2012 bid to become mayor of Salford. National police guidance says such warnings should be handed over personally "where appropriate", but can also be delivered in other ways, for instance over the phone if the subject is abroad. Footage shown to the jury at Liverpool Crown Court in Dec 2018 of Paul Massey buying Bacardi and Coke in Bargain Booze, just minutes before he was gunned down outside his house in July 2015. Credit: GMP (Image: GMP ) ‌ At a pre-inquest review hearing at Bolton Coroners' Court this week, senior Manchester West coroner Timothy Brennand ordered GMP to write a report for him detailing police contact with Massey in the months and weeks before his murder. He told the members of the Massey family in court: "I want to be clear about what police contact had or had not taken place in relation to the service of the threat-to-life notice but also from that date through the following eight weeks but in particular in the fortnight prior to your father's death. I want to know if and what contact had taken place even if that's a negative." He also said the force now accepts the way the final threat-to-life notice was issued was "suboptimal". Mr Brennand said the family had waited "such a long time" and that he wanted to have "all the information that's available to me" before deciding whether to go ahead with a full inquest into Massey's death to examine whether the state played a role in his death. The coroner went on that GMP was urging the court to "draw an inference" that Massey must have read the threat-to-life notice as, following his death, the document was found at his home and it was said to have had Massey's fingerprints on it. Mr Brennand said there was "strong primary evidence available to the court that your father was in fact told about the threat to life" but on its own this was not a "technical knock-out blow". ‌ Paul Massey and his daughter, Kelly Massey (Image: Kelly Massey ) He has also requested a copy of a 300-page employment tribunal judgment which ruled against GMP whistleblower Pete Jackson, who was in charge of GMP's major incident team at the time Salford was erupting in gang war. The former detective said he was repeatedly "undermined" as he battled to bring gangsters and gunmen to justice as part of GMP's Operation Leopard. He argued alleged gang bosses escaped justice because of the internal strife at GMP at the time. And the coroner said he was also seeking statements Massey made to journalists during his life. He told the BBC in 1998 for a documentary which was never aired that he could be murdered "at any time". He suggested there would be dire consequences for any would-be assassin, laughing: "I pity the b****** who did it after." ‌ Mr Massey's daughter Kelly Massey questioned the fingerprint evidence at the hearing and insisted GMP "knew fine well there was an active gang war going on in Salford" at the time officers delivered the warning. "My dad's life was in immediate danger," she said, arguing officers who arrived on her father's doorstep should have given the notice to him "personally". Ms Massey said there were "missing details" from the evidence bundle the family had received, including missing statements from two of the three officers who visited her dad's home with the notice. She said her dad would have moved to north Wales as he had done following the alleged 2012 threat-to-life notice and "put his own protection in place". She accused the police of a "cover up" and said: "I believe my father would still be alive today if the police had done their job." She said her dad would have taken steps to protect himself if he had been informed of the threat. ‌ Kelly Massey at the grave of her dad Paul Massey (Image: Handout ) Despite his well-known criminal history, she says her dad deserved like anyone else to be informed if there was a threat on his life. In 1999, Massey was jailed for 14 years for a stabbing. The vicious attack came as he was being followed by a film crew round the city's nightclubs for a documentary that was never released. His victim, a member of a stag party visiting a club on Whitworth Street, was stabbed in the groin after confronting and headbutting Massey for smashing the window of their minibus. Suffering a severed artery he only survived thanks to the skill of a surgeon, who was called away from a black-tie dinner that night. ‌ Massey fled to Amsterdam, but was extradited to the UK to face justice. When he came out of prison, he retained a fearsome reputation in Manchester's gangland. A decision on whether there will be a full inquest is due to be announced at another hearing at Bolton Coroners' Court on July 31. After the hearing, Kelly Massey, 42, told the Manchester Evening News: "I'm glad we are finally getting listened to and the police have been told to provide further evidence. "This has been hell for our family. We've been through hell. I feel like I've lost my whole life but fighting for my dad at the coroners' court makes me feel proud because I feel like I'm actually doing something for my dad." Article continues below A GMP spokesperson said: "GMP is cooperating fully with the ongoing coronial process in relation to the death of Mr Massey. It would not be appropriate to comment further on issues which may be subject to examination by His Majesty’s Coroner as part of those proceedings."