Hundreds of mourners turned out yesterday for the funeral of feared crime boss Jamie Daniel as his convicted drug dealer son, chained to prison guards, carried his father's coffin.
Daniel, who died from cancer at the age of 58, was the head of the notorious Glasgow-based Daniel family. He was cremated in a humanist ceremony at a service attended by more than 600. His son Zander Sutherland was released from prison under guard for the funeral.
During an emotionally-charged service family members openly wept while recordings of the crime boss's favourite tunes, including Elvis Presley's In The Ghetto, were played.
Read more: Glasgow mob boss Jamie Daniel who waged murderous drugs war dies of cancer
Service celebrant Barbara Ogilvie told how Daniel had left an "unfillable gap" and how he had "always been his own man", who loved eating curry, playing pool, hunting "up north" and supporting Rangers and Liverpool FC.
Family members arrived for the funeral in large chauffeur-driven cars as uniformed police officers stood guard at the vehicle entrance outside a rain-soaked Clydebank crematorium.
Daniel's jailed son was embraced by a number of family and friends before he was led back to a prison escort van parked outside the crematorium.
Sutherland, who was jailed for 13-and-a-half years in June last year for supplying heroin, had been granted permission to attend the funeral under prison escort. The 26-year-old was also granted home leave last weekend to say a final farewell to crime boss Daniel, who lost a lengthy battle with cancer on Monday.
Three officers from the G4S prison escort service surrounded Sutherland, who was handcuffed and chained to a guard during the 30-minute service.
Family members and friends laid red roses and blue tulips on the coffin before celebrant Ogilvie talked about the life of Daniel, who was thought to be worth around £10 million and who ran a scrap metal business. She said that Daniel had been a keen pool player who liked to go hunting in the north of Scotland and spoke of his "generosity" to family and friends.
She said that Daniel had left an unfillable gap" and a "huge void" in the lives of his family and friends, as she talked about his close bond with his sons, daughters, and his brother and sisters.
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She claimed that they "broke the mould when they made him" as she told mourners about Daniel's 20-year relationship with his partner Debbi Mortimer, 41, who he married earlier this year.
Ogilvie said that Daniel's family wanted to thank a surgeon - "Mr Dixon'" - who treated him in hospital, until he was released over a week ago in order to spend his final days surrounded by family.
Daniel was diagnosed with cancer sin 2010 and told it was terminal two years ago. Last year he was rushed to hospital with kidney failure. He is reported to have defied doctors’ advice to leave Glasgow's Royal Infirmary, to return to his house in the city’s west end where he died.
He and his gang are reported to have waged a murderous drugs war in Glasgow with the notorious Lyons family, leading to the killing in an Asda car park on Kevin 'The Gerbil' Carroll, Daniel’s main enforcer, in 2010. Carroll was the partner of Kelly Green, Daniel's daughter. His killer, William Paterson, is said to be associated with the wider Lyons clan.
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Daniel was a convicted heroin dealer who served four years behind bars, and who went back to prison in 2009 over a road rage attack. A year later he survived a heart attack which occurred during a fight with another prisoner in the city's Barlinnie prison.
Last year it emerged he was fighting for his life when he was due to stand trial for threatening two women, including his sister Annette. He denied sending menacing messages from Greenock jail to shoplifter Annette, 53, and killer Caroline Igoe, 37, who is serving life for murdering boyfriend Martyn Barclay in 2010.
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