Stephen 'The Devil' French sat next to Mamadou Sakho and Christian Benteke at Liverpool win

French appeared to be sitting in the Liverpool VIP section next to Mamadou Sakho and Christian Benteke

(Sky Sports)

A section of the Liverpool support has reacted with outrage after notorious gangster Stephen French was spotted sitting next to centre-back Mamadou Sakho and Christian Benteke in what appeared to be the club's VIP section for the match against Bournemouth

French, known as 'The Devil, apparently used to kidnap and torture drug dealers taking their money they had made from selling crack and heroin.

In later years he had worked to style himself as reformed but was then jailed in 2013 for three years for pistol-whipping a businessman with an imitation gun after a dispute over money; he then dumped the plasic weapon and a machete into the River Mersey.

Not much has been seen from French in the last couple of years, save for him becoming a Vine sensation after videos and quotes from his 2008 appearance on TV show Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men resurfaced.

But when he appeared sitting next to Sakho, there was a huge amount of reaction, with some outraged,

"My 14-year-old son is at that match and there's Stephen French who has said half a dozen people want to kill him," an anonymous man told the Liverpool Echo.

"What if someone takes a shot at him? I think it's disgusting he's allowed to be there. Someone should tell [Liverpool manager Jurgen] Klopp."

Others, however, showed a mixture of disbelief and humour.

Liverpool picked up their first win under Klopp, Nathaniel Clyne scoring the only goal of the game to put the Reds into the quarter-final, where they will travel to Southampton.