Send-off for Gerbil, four months on

• The funeral of Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll, shot dead in January, eventually went ahead yesterday. Picture: PA

The gangster's body was driven to Maryhill Crematorium's chapel in Glasgow as mourners gathered, many from the city's underworld.

After a 25-minute service, Carroll's coffin was driven to Clydebank before being taken on a horse and carriage to Langfaulds Cemetery, Bearsden, for burial. His family had been told his body must not be cremated while his murder is unsolved.

Carroll, who operated as an enforcer for a feared Glasgow crime family, was shot more than ten times as he sat in a car outside the Asda store in Robroyston, north Glasgow.

The 29-year-old drug dealer was at the centre of a decade-long turf war with rival crime gang, the Lyons family.

Yesterday, his partner and mother of his children, Kelly Green, sobbed as she dedicated a poem to him. She said: "You are always in my heart and there's not a day that goes by where I do not think of you."

Mourners also heard Carroll described as a "loyal friend".

Floral wreaths left in tribute to him included one reading "Gerbil" and another that spelled out "Adios Amigo".

Another tribute read: "To our daddy. We love you so, so, much. You will always be our hero.

"Love Reece, Konner, and Boe."

Carroll's black coffin was decorated with silver tassles and was carried out as Celine Dion's My heart will go on – the theme for the movie Titanic – was played over the loudspeaker system. More than 200 mourners packed into the crematorium's tiny chapel with some having to stand in the aisles during the service.

One mourner said: "Kelly could hardly stand and had to be helped to the altar when she read out her poem. She was sobbing her heart out.

"The service only lasted about 25 minutes and it was absolutely packed. There was standing room only.

"It all passed off very peacefully although the police did have a presence outside on the road."

Carroll's family had become increasingly frustrated at the length of time his body had been kept in the city mortuary at the behest of the Crown Office.

But the remains were returned to them last week.

Kelly is the daughter of scrapyard boss and clan head Jamie Daniel. He was unable to attend yesterday's service.

Carroll was close friends with Francis "Fraggle" Green, 27. He was one of the first on the scene when Carroll was gunned down in January.

It later emerged Carroll was killed by his own guns, stolen from him by a former friend turned foe.

The weapons were later found hidden near to Coatbridge library in North Lanarkshire.

Police made one arrest over the murder but the man, Craig Gallagher, 30, was later freed without charge.

Carroll is alleged to have led a crime gang who abducted, tortured and robbed rival drug dealers in so-called "alien abductions".

Their tactics included dressing in black and pretending to be a police team when breaking down the doors of drug dealers in late-night raids.

Last night, a Strathclyde Police spokeswoman said inquiries into the murder of Carroll, left, were continuing.