06 March 2025 , 05:32
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Dean MacLeod, discovered dead in his jail cell days following a violent assault on an officer, committed atrocious crimes alongside his father, Ian MacLeod, a notorious gang leader
The father of depraved torture killer Dean MacLeod was a notorious gang leader, allegedly inspiring the character Begbie from Irvine Welsh’s cult classic Trainspotting. MacLeod junior, 33, nicknamed Denim, was serving a life sentence for his heinous crimes when he was found dead in his cell this week, days after a violent attack on a prison officer.
He had been sentenced to 34 years for the brutal torture killings of two innocent men, carried out alongside his father, Ian MacLeod, 67. The pair, known as the "blowtorch killers", used machetes, hammers, and a Stanley knife to mutilate their victims, leaving one with horrific injuries, including hacked-off ears, a severed nose and lip, and nails forced into his eyes.
They also bludgeoned him with a hammer, leaving it embedded in his skull, and burned the initials "YLT" - believed to stand for the Edinburgh street gang Young Leith Team - into his forehead.
Ian MacLeod, known as Bronco, was a feared gang leader in Edinburgh, with a reputation so notorious that he is believed to have inspired Begbie’s character.
Ian MacLeod has been jailed for life ( Image: Police Scotland)
A Reddit user stated: "The father Ian ’Bronco’ MacLeod used to run the gang in the 80s and it’s extremely likely to be the inspiration for Irvine Welsh’s Begbie. Real nasty guy, stabbed [a woman] in the face with a corkscrew in 2009 among other things."
The notorious ’young teams’ label still sticks to youth gangs in Scotland today, despite a significant drop in the once sky-high knife crime ignited by gang feuds, largely due to successful interventions like the Violence Reduction Unit, reports the Daily Record. One Edinburgh native took to Reddit to explain: "’YLT’ is sort of a joke in Edinburgh. I grew up there, knew plenty of guys who’d graffiti the acronym everywhere, but never knew it to be associated with any actual active gang.
"It was always just neds acting harder than they were and using the acronym of a famous gang from the 80s/90s while doing it."
Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting has become a cult book and film around the world (Image: Getty Images)
Irvine Welsh’s iconic 1993 novel ’Trainspotting’ introduced readers to the fearsome Francis ’Franco’ Begbie - a violence-loving thug with scorn for his heroin-hooked mates. Robert Carlyle famously brought the character to life in Danny Boyle’s cult film of the same name.
Welsh has disclosed that he based Begbie, a key figure in the Young Leith Team within Welsh’s books, on several real-life acquaintances from his upbringing in Leith.
Back in 2005, Scottish writer Reg McKay unearthed the formidable legend of ’Bronco’ MacLeod in the Daily Record. He quoted a former gang member called ’Turnbull’. He said: "Every gang needed some type of leader.
"Ian ’Bronco’ McLeod of the Leith Team was fearless and gave the more timid guys in the gang some bottle. Believe me, Bronco was one hard case. Bronco’s reputation for courage and violence was infamous.
Dean MacLeod was found dead at Low Moss prison on Sunday ( Image: Police Scotland)
"One time, we took on the Niddrie Terror - in Princes Street Gardens. The Leith Team were winning and the Niddrie Terror leader, a guy we called Zingo, took to his heels. Unfortunately for him, Bronco caught him and left him a hospital case."
A link to the story was posted on the Scottish football website Pie and Bovril. The post read: "Bronco is currently unavailable as he is in prison awaiting trial alongside his son for a double murder in a Niddrie tower block.
"Rumours are that the victims had the letters ’YLT’ burned into their flesh with a blowtorch." MacLeod, who had mental health issues, later described his father - who was also a former Hibs football hooligan - as a "sociopath" and a "pure warrior of a man".