Liam Byrne’s hyperlinks to drug cartel as son expects little one with Steven Gerrard’s daughter
Pregnant Lilly-Ella Gerrard’s boyfriend is the son of Liam Byrne, who was named in an Irish court as a ‘trusted lieutenant’ of the Kinahan cartel – which US authorities have a $15million bounty on
Lilly-Ella Gerrard, daughter of Liverpool legend Steven, is expecting a child with the son of a career criminal who has a violent history and links to a massive international drug cartel. The 20-year-old social media influencer excitedly told followers over the weekend she and boyfriend Lee Byrne, who is not involved in crime, have a bun in the oven.
She wrote: “Our little secret. The best news… mini us is on the way.” And her footballing father Steven congratulated her in the comment section of the post featuring baby shoes, pregnancy tests and ultrasound scans of the baby.
However, there was no message from the baby’s other granddad-to-be Liam Byrne, given he’s currently locked up in HMP Belmarsh after being sentenced to five years for firearm charges. The 44-year-old was one of Ireland’s most powerful organised crime figures for more than a decade.
As head of the “Byrne organised crime group”, Liam was considered one of Ireland’s biggest drug dealers. The clan, which is said to have been dismantled by the Irish police, is a branch of the Kinahan cartel, which was once one of Europe’s biggest drug smuggling groups.
Drug dealing teenager
Liam Byrne grew up in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin and was the son of convicted fraudster James ‘Jaws’ Byrne, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 77. While still in his early teens, Liam started selling drugs supplied by Christy Kinahan Snr, the founder of the Kinahan crime cartel who is known as “Dapper Don”.
The US State Department estimated last year the Kinahan family owned businesses worth £800million, which they bought with the laundered proceeds of their massive drug empire. US authorities are so keen to catch the high-flying criminals that they are offering $15million for information on the “Dapper Don” and his sons, Daniel and Christy Jnr.
At the tender age of 17, Liam Byrne teamed up with underage Ireland international footballer Liam Greenhalgh to carry-out armed robberies of two Dublin shops. An off-duty garda, the term for an Irish police officer, walked in on the second robbery, the Irish Times reported.
Byrne was handed a four-year suspended sentence after being convicted of firearms, burglary and dangerous driving charges in January 2000. Despite the Irish courts ordering him to keep the peace, he was involved in a brutal unprovoked assault on a League of Ireland footballer just two months later.
Brutal baseball bat battering
Trevor Donnelly and his girlfriend Jennifer Doyle were in fast-food outlet Abrakebabra in Crumline at 2.15am on April 23, 2000 when three young drunken women started shouting “scumbag” and “knacker” at the footballer. The couple left the shop but were followed by the women, one of which hit Mr Donnelly over the head with her handbag.
Byrne arrived on the scene by car and ran at Donnelly with a baseball bat in hand. He knocked him to the ground with a blow to head before he continued to strike Trevor as he lay helpless on the ground. Jennifer begged Byrne to stop, to which he replied: “Tell him if he wakes up it’s bullets”.
The brutal assault was witnessed by about 50 onlookers but only Jennifer and Trevor dared to testify as Byrne and his associates were already feared in the area. As reported by the Mirror at the time, Trevor revealed how Byrne “ruined” his life. He said: “I’ll never play football again that is for sure. But if I could even get my life back, it would be something.
“I spend my days looking over my shoulder. I’m afraid to go out. I know there is a hit on my head, and I know these people are serious.”
The vicious assault brought Byrne back before the courts at a time when he was serving a suspended sentence for armed robbery. Desperate to avoid jail, Liam tried to intimidate Jennifer into not testifying in his trial.
The mum-of-two was forced to leave her home after shots were fired at it and she was reportedly offered €50,000 to withhold her testimony. And there was even a plot to have her killed by an Irish Nationalist Liberation Army (INLA) gunman in an effort to keep the jury from hearing her side of the story.
After giving evidence, Jennifer was assaulted in the Four Courts’ corridors, with the attack leaving her badly injured. Her determination paid off, however, and Byrne was put away for six years. The young criminal’s time inside did nothing to set him on the straight and narrow.
Rise to leadership
After leaving his cell behind, Byrne continued with his career as a criminal, with he and the then-head of the Byrne organised crime group, Freddie Thompson, making frequent trips to southern Spain. It was here where smuggler Kinahan would supply them with drugs, which they would then distribute while overseeing debt collection.
A feud with the INLA in 2007 and 2008 meant Thompson had to frequently leave Dublin – and it’s believed Byrne then picked up his crown as the new head of the branch, which is part of Ireland’s largest crime syndicates, the Kinahan Cartel
Firearms plot
Byrne, alongside his notorious brother-in-law Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, recently pleaded guilty to firearm charges after originally proclaiming their innocence.
They did so in the Old Bailey on September 18 after a botched plot to get a lighter sentence. Kavanagh is serving a 21-year sentence for being the brains behind a £30million drug smuggling operation. But he masterminded a plot behind bars, with the help of Byrne and a man called Shaun Kent, to amass firearms.
They then pretended to act as informants by tipping off the National Crime Agency about where the firearms were after they entered Northern Ireland from Holland. The haul included three handguns, four machine guns, a rifle and three pistols.
The plot was eventually foiled after encrypted chats were hacked by cops before the trio eventually pleaded guilty to firearm charges. They also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon and two counts of conspiracy to possess ammunition for a firearm without a certificate.
Byrne was sentenced to five years in jail, while Kavanagh was sentenced to six years and Kent meanwhile was also handed six years.
National Crime Agency (NCA) Branch Commander Ty Surgeon said: “At the instruction of their leader Thomas Kavanagh, Shaun Kent and Liam Byrne orchestrated a cynical and dangerous plot to plant a cache of weapons so Kavanagh could direct the NCA to them and reduce his time in prison.
“The NCA’s mission is to protect the public from serious and organised crime, and as this case shows, we will pursue every avenue, including overseas, to ensure criminals are brought to justice.”
Lilly-Ella and Lee’s happy reaction
After his father was sentenced to just five years in October last year, Lee Byrne, who is not involved in crime, took to social media to celebrate the short sentence. He wrote “get in there” online before adding: “I love you da. See you soon.”
Showing her support, Lilly-Ella, daughter of Liverpool legend Gerrard, wrote to her 205,000 Instagram followers: “So happy for my Lee, Love you so, so much always.”
Lilly-Ella – who shares her glamourous life on Instagram – and Lee started dating in January 2024 when she was 18 and he was 23. Lee has previously described his girlfriend as “the best person he’s ever met” and in January, Lilly-Ella shared a picture of the pair online with the caption: “Best friend. Happy new year.”
He has also hit it off with her father, who last year wrote on Instagram: “Happy birthday mate, have a boss day.”
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