Killer turns to art and proves to be a trophy catch
A MURDERER serving at least 20 years for ordering hired thugs to inject a 22-year-old man with a lethal heroin dose is back in the news – for winning an art award.
Former heroin dealer Melvyn "Adie" McLellan – known as the Codfather for his hold on Grimsby's drug scene – was jailed in 1997 for ordering the murder of Greg Dalton.
The two had been feuding because, in 1995, Dalton heard that McLellan intended to have him beaten up, so he struck first, attacking him with the help of Terence Norman and Anthony Crowder.
Furious over the attack, McLellan paid Norman and Crowder £500 to aid him in the killing in which Dalton was given 25 times the dose of heroin needed to kill him at a drugs party in Norman's Brereton Avenue flat.
McLellan, now serving time at HMP Wayland, has turned his hand to art since his imprisonment and one of his most recent pieces – a 3ft shark's head, called Great White Shark and made of matchsticks, is being displayed in the South Bank Centre, London.
The piece was highly commended by the Koestler Trust, which promotes and exhibits art by offenders and detainees, and picked for their Art By Offenders exhibition.
It is also understood that the killer has been offered £1,000 for the shark head. It is also thought he has been approached by an Australian angling company to make a trophy for a competition to catch big fish.
McLellan's mother, Barbara Wakefield and her partner, Nick Riley, who has been like a father to McClellan, insist that art has rehabilitated him, so that he will not have to return to a life of crime when he has served his time.
Barbara said: "Twenty years is a long time and he wants to turn his life around when he comes out.
"Art has given someone in his position an opportunity to do something else. He doesn't want to come back to Grimsby and live that life again – he just wants to get a studio out of town and get on with his art."
10 Comments
View all
by JustinVented
Tuesday, October 11 2011, 10:53PM
“@danjim12
I knew ur dad..... a long time back now.... I got to know him through Andy Ebbs, don`t let yourself get wound up over Mclellan, his dad was a *****, and that whole family all grassed up thier own mother, I laughed when I saw her name on this page, and talking about her bloke being a second father to him... It`s a shame they never asked about her ex and which one of them had smoked more dudes or slipped in the shower the most. I wonder if her new bloke is also a convicted sex offender, and also that she is a convicted felon and is just as bad as the rest of that family, like I said don`t let it wind you up... if one matchstick sculpture is the biggest achievement he has made in all them years of his time being used on his wing, well it shows how busy he must be 24/7 with all his homosexual lifer bumchums, I saw his ***** dad get a massive beating in Ranby in 1993 from about 7-8 dudes, FACT!! His old man told them everything about Adi and the rest of them in the hope they wouldnt keep smashing him up, so it`s a safe bet the codfather has got the same... and he is probably on section 43 surrounded by sexual predators who pass him around like a joint!! Remember your dad without letting this rubbish his memory, and stay safe...”
by shazmiller1
Sunday, October 09 2011, 7:35PM
“bring back HANGING...Id gladly kick the stool from underneath IT..!”
by danjim12
Sunday, October 09 2011, 4:01PM
“ya see if tht mcleannon eva steppd foot in gy id tek out all his teeth put him in my shed n turture the ****** 4 wat e did to my dad gregg wasnt the only person he killed he killed my dad paul ebbs on christmas eve in 1992 in my eyes m8t life for a life your time will come coz wat goes round comes bak round thicker n faster trust il be seeing you v soon old man even if i had to wait outside wayland me sen ya x x”
by danjim12
Sunday, October 09 2011, 4:00PM
“ya see if tht mcleannon eva steppd foot in gy id tek out all his teeth put him in my shed n turture the ****** 4 wat e did to my dad gregg wasnt the only person he killed he killed my dad paul ebbs on christmas eve in 1992 in my eyes m8t life for a life your time will come coz wat goes round comes bak round thicker n faster trust il be seeing you v soon old man even if i had to wait outside wayland me sen ya x x”
by Abbyx
Saturday, October 08 2011, 5:45PM
“Disgusting creature took a really good friend of mine he should get no money for it, just serve his time”