GANGSTER'S BROTHER SENT TO "DIGGER" AFTER BEING ATTACKED

 

Robert McCann, brother of notorious east end gangster James "Jasper" McCann has reportedly been put in "the Digger" (prison slang for solitary confinement) after being attacked with a blade three times in as many weeks.

The 40-year-old gun shot survivor needed stitches to an ugly wound after being injured with a bladed weapon in Addiewell Prison,West Lothian.

The attack came just weeks after he was on the end of two similar violent assaults in tough Shotts Prison, in Lanarkshire.

McCann, jailed for his part in torturing a man for hours with a hammer and wire, is linked to the Daniel crime family who have been warring for more than 20 years with the rival Lyons gang.

It's claimed he was hired to attack inmates associated with gangster Steven Lyons.

However jail bosses have now kept him away from the main prison population after a series of violent incidents which have left him nursing stitches.

A source said: “The money spent on buying 'parcels' (illegal drugs smuggled into prison) for Rab McCann has been wasted. The Daniels thought he would be a good jail 'fire-in' but he's more of a failed assassin and nothing like his brother Jasper.

“Rab came into jail and was talking the talk and dropping his brother's name, but as soon as things warmed up, he came apart at the seams. It now looks like he'll be spending the rest of his sentence in the digger.

“He was set about twice in Shotts, then disappeared on a Rule for a few weeks before being let back into the main hall.

“But was 'done' again before bosses at Shotts ghosted him to Addiewell, because it was thought he’d be safer there. However he was only there a fortnight before suffering another doing.

“The screws don’t want him in any of the halls. They don't want the hassle of trying to explain to their own bosses why they can't stop him from getting hammered every other week.”

McCann was jailed for 7 years at the High Court in Glasgow for his part in attacking car crash victim Paul Connor.

Criminal sources say the thug’s brother James “Jasper” McCann, who got eight years after the pair tried to take Mr Connor's compensation money from him, was also drawn into the Daniels' camp, bought by square ups and promises of jail parcels.

Jasper has himself been no stranger to violence inside and was also reported to have been slashed in Shotts in June after he was transferred there from Barlinnie, it was claimed he told fellow cons he was "going to do" whoever "done" his brother and anyone linked to it. But was attacked himself shortly afterwards.

This was roughly the third time he had been the victim of a serious assault in Shotts, after being brutally stabbed by Paisley man Paul Sheehan in 1996, in a row over "a bag" (of Heroin) in the TV room in a section on the second flat of A Hall.

DANGEROUS: Gangster Jasper McCann

Just 2 and a half years later, on January 1998, in Shotts' B Hall, he was once again set about by life prisoner Paul McHugh, after he accused him of sneaking into his "peter" (cell) and nicking a bit of "kit" (Heroin).

McHugh had no idea what he was talking about and retaliated against McCann and set about his camp, consisting of McCann, John (Jinxy) McGill and Paul Healy, which sparked a mass brawl in the section in B hall's 2nd flat. All four men were carted off to the Digger as a result of the disturbance, where McCann had gotten parcels in and "squared up Healy & McHugh (his attacker), but blanked one of his own camp - Jinxy. It was taken from that that he thought it was really Jinxy that stole the kit and caused the fight with McHugh.

That episode was followed by another brawl in the exercise yard as McGill was set upon by Brian Skillin of Lanarkshire, who is believed to have been paid to do him for allegedly stealing the kit. McGill was stabbed on the arm, but allegedly stabbed his assailant back before the screws broke it up and carted them both off to Law hospital to be patched up.

On the outside, Jasper was a suspect in the murder of Lyons associate George “Goofy” Docherty who was knifed in the street and then run over three times in 2006. No one has ever been convicted of the killing. 

SLAIN: Goofy Docherty

He was also cleared of slashing convicted heroin dealer David Santini in 2014 and the attempted murder of a garage boss in Edinburgh in 2012.

The source added: “There was always going to be trouble when Jasper got jailed.

“The Lyons's blamed Jasper for Goofy’s murder for years.”

In September 2018, Robert McCann was shot in the east end of Glasgow but the alleged gunman was cleared over the murder bid.

Another shooting victim, targeted in a separate attack, said two masked thugs had asked for Jasper McCann.

The McCanns were locked up in 2019 after taking car crash victim Paul Connor from a flat in Shettleston to a property in Airdrie, where he was tortured.

They wanted his compensation money he got after his car crash.

Accomplice Greg Bannerman, 54, was imprisoned for four years for the role he played in the 2017 ordeal.

Prison authorities have struggled to keep a lid on the feud between the Daniel and Lyons organised crime groups.

Officials have tried to keep men linked to the gangs in separate prisons.

But a Police Scotland crackdown on their war – codenamed Operation Engagement – has resulted in a large number of their associates being jailed.

The success has led to difficulties in the Scottish Prison Service keeping the rivals apart and resulted in an upward trend in jail assaults.

An SPS spokesperson said: “We don’t comment on individual prisoners.”