Crime clan boss Steven “Bonzo” Daniel has a new football buddy – a drug-dealing rapist nicknamed Hannibal the Cannibal.
The Daniel mob leader, who was left seriously disfigured when he was ambushed, now regularly attends games with Spencer Mellors.
Violent Mellors was jailed for nine years in 1996 for holding a prostitute hostage for nine hours, raping her and biting her.
He was also jailed for four years in 2008 after being caught with £100,000 worth of drugs, was quizzed over the street shooting of a Glasgow gran Louise Brown in the same year, and was twice caged over domestic abuse.
Daniel, 43, and Mellors, 58, have been spotted together at several Rangers matches. They were photographed together in the crowd at Hampden during the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic at the weekend.
A source said: “I’ve seen them both plenty at Ibrox this season. They’ve also been to away matches as well.
“They were at McDiarmid Park for the St Johnstone match earlier this season and were also at Fir Park together for the tie against Motherwell.
“They’re basically joined at the hip. Bonzo is a very private guy given his status, the previous attempt on his life and attacks on associates.
“He must really trust Spencer to let him in and have been with him so much. If something was to kick off, Spencer is exactly the kinda guy you’d want to have by your side.”
Last year, a home linked to Bonzo was targeted by masked thugs, who rammed a car into the porch, leaving the property badly damaged.
The £340,000 villa, in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, is owned by his partner Avril Connell and was bought in 2003.
The attack on the house came just months after his bid to buy a home with bulletproof windows, a safe room and a steel front door fell through.
Pictures showed the front door boarded up, while the wall of the porch was partially caved in and the guttering was melted after catching fire. He had tried to sell the property but in November 2019 it was reported that a deal had fallen through.
Police said this week that nobody has been arrested over the November 2022 attack and that inquiries are ongoing.
The house was previously placed under police guard after Bonzo, who is also known as Steven Peebles, was mutilated by rivals in 2017.
Police guarded the home during the attempted murder trial of those behind the attack, which left him sporting grotesque facial wounds.
He was rammed off the road near Glasgow’s M8 while making his way home from a Rangers game and attacked by weapon-wielding rivals.
His tongue was shredded and his teeth and jaw bone were left exposed in a knife attack so severe his injuries left medics believing he’d been shot.
The botched machete murder plot came during a spate of
incidents amid the 20-year-long feud between the rival Daniel and Lyons crime clans.
In March that year his cousin, Robert Daniel, was shot outside his home in Stepps, near Glasgow.
The same month, Daniel clan associate Ross Sherlock was slashed in the neck in Low Moss prison.
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