Gerrard’s unsavoury in-laws! As his daughter proclaims being pregnant with the son of one among Ireland’s most infamous gangsters, what does England’s ex-football captain actually take into consideration sharing grandad duties with an arms-dealing convict?

On a humid June evening in 2023, a middle-aged man called Liam Byrne was arrested on suspicion of firearms offences while dining with family at a restaurant in the Majorcan town of Alcudia.

Byrne clearly hadn’t seen it coming: CCTV footage from the local police station shows him dressed casually in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops as he’s escorted into a cell by officers from the National Crime Agency.

In the event, the arrest was a low-key affair, although it had been months in the making, the result of a long-standing investigation by police in the UK and Northern Ireland linking the 44-year-old to a wider network of arms and drugs offences, including stockpiling handguns and sub-machine guns to supply to violent criminal organisations.

After being extradited to the UK, Byrne was convicted on a series of arms charges last September at the central London criminal court and sent to prison for five and a half years.

Meanwhile, around the time Byrne was being slapped in handcuffs, a very different scene was unfolding many hundreds of miles away in the city of Liverpool.

There, Lilly-Ella Gerrard, the then 19-year-old daughter of the footballing legend Steven, a former England captain and considered to be one of Liverpool Football Club’s greatest-ever players, was busy uploading a sweet video onto social media showing her lip-syncing to a pop song as she cuddled her two dogs in the front of her car.

It was just the latest in a series of carefree posts on Instagram and TikTok where the pretty blonde – now an influencer with around 200,000 followers – shares images of her domestic life and travels.

Quite the contrast. Certainly on paper at least, there is little to link these two images: one a convicted – and indeed career – criminal now residing at His Majesty’s pleasure in London’s HMP Belmarsh, the other a teenager born into footballing royalty.

A closer look at the comments alongside Lilly’s affectionate tribute to her beloved pets may, however, give a small clue. ‘What’s the story with the father-in-law then?’ reads one.

For at the time of her post – and Liam Byrne’s arrest – Lilly had been dating Liam’s son Lee for a year, creating a family connection with one of Ireland’s most prominent and notorious criminal dynasties.

That direct line is now set to become a bloodline following news this week that Lilly is expecting her first baby with Lee.

On Sunday, she announced her pregnancy on Instagram with a post showing her ultrasound scan pictures arranged next to two positive tests, a journal, and a tiny pair of baby boots. ‘Our little secret. The best news… mini us is on the way,’ she wrote.

The new arrival will be the first grandchild for 44-year-old Steven Gerrard and his wife Alex – who have three other children, daughters Lexie, 18, and Lourdes, 13, and eight-year-old son Lio – as well as for Lee’s dad Liam and mum Simoan, and marks the formal coming together of two rather different families.

It is a development that not everyone believes is entirely welcome: in 2023, following Liam Byrne’s arrest, one of Ireland’s top police officers former Garda Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, told the Mail that any links to the Byrne clan would not do Steven Gerrard ‘any favours’.

Of course, one cannot visit the sins of the father upon the son: there is no suggestion that 25-year-old Lee is involved in any criminality, and those who know him describe him as a ‘nice lad’ who is devoted to Lilly-Ella and has forged a strong bond with her mother Alex, who he is said to see as a ‘second mum’.

Steven is clearly fond of his firstborn’s partner too, publicly wishing him a Happy Birthday on social media last year, and appearing alongside him in several of his daughter’s posts about family life.

But there is also no doubt that Lee’s surname carries huge notoriety in his native Ireland – and certainly around the suburbs of south Dublin, where he was raised for the first few years of his life in a former council house whose modest exterior masked eye-wateringly lavish interiors (notable features include expensive Italian tiles, an all-weather pitch and playground, a sunken bath, gym and a man cave with its own bar).

Indeed, it is fair to say that the family tree is steeped in criminality, starting with Lee’s grandfather James ‘Jaws’ Byrne, a convicted armed robber and fraudster who passed away last year at the age of 77 after a life lived on the fringes of the law.

He had more than a dozen convictions for theft, receiving stolen property, forgery and assaulting Gardai and was twice targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau investigating the origins of his money.

Notably, Lee flew from Dubai – where he has latterly settled with Lilly – to attend his grandfather’s funeral at Dublin’s St Catherine’s Church, and addressed the packed congregation with a message from his father, who was behind bars awaiting trial.

‘My Da’ has asked me to say these few words, as you all know how close they both were. I even get a little jealous sometimes,’ he told the packed congregation. ‘They had a bond that could never be broken. They were inseparable. He’s so so sorry he can’t be here today, especially to support my nanny, who he also adores.’

Turning to the coffin he added: ‘This is from my dad. He said, “You’re my hero. Love you always. To Jemmy Byrne – You’ll never walk alone.”’

They are the words of the Liverpool anthem that would have rung in Steven Gerrard’s ears so many times at Anfield.

Absent, however, was James’ youngest son – Lee’s Uncle David – who was killed seven years previously in one of Ireland’s most notorious gangland shootings. Gunned down at the Dublin’s Regency Hotel after a feud with a rival gang called the Hutches, his murder was the start of a killing spree which went on to claim ten lives.

Liam and David, who share a further four siblings, clearly followed in their father’s criminal footsteps.

As a teenager Liam became known to local Gardai for dealing drugs supplied by Christy Kinahan Snr, an Irish crime boss known as the ‘Dapper Don’ who is the alleged leader of the Kinahan Cartel, Ireland’s largest crime syndicate.

By 17 he was carrying out his first violent offence, teaming up in July 1998 with close friend Liam Greenhalgh (then the Ireland under-16 football captain,) to carry out armed robberies on two Dublin shops.

It was the start of yet more wrongdoing. Just over 18 months later, he was given a four-year suspended sentence after being convicted of firearms, burglary and dangerous driving charges. And despite being ordered to keep the peace, in April 2000, he launched a brutal, unprovoked attack with a baseball bat against former League of Ireland footballer Trevor Donnelly outside a local shopping centre in Crumlin, Dublin.

Trevor’s wife Jennifer later testified how, before walking away, Liam warned her: ‘Tell him if he wakes up, it’s bullets.’

Despite dozens of witnesses, Byrne’s reputation by then was so fearsome that only Trevor and Jennifer would give evidence at his trial, at which point his four-year suspended sentence was activated with an additional two years added for assault.

Alas, Byrne’s time inside Dublin’s notorious Mountjoy Prison – known as ‘The Joy’ to locals – did nothing to quell his criminal tendencies. After his release, together with Freddie Thompson, another organised crime leader and part of the Kinahan Cartel, he made frequent ‘drug runs’ to southern Spain. 

By the late noughties, Byrne became the new ‘head of branch’ – ‘The Kinahans’ “top boy” in Dublin’ as one Garda officer put it – but in 2019 he and his family fled Ireland after the Criminal Assets Bureau came knocking. They seized his home, dozens of cars, jewellery and bank accounts amounting to millions.

Together with his son Lee and daughter Honey, he and Simoan settled in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where, as the Old Bailey would subsequently hear, Byrne became involved in a plot to amass a vast collection of ‘fearsome’ weapons, among them machine guns and assault rifles for use by criminal gangs. Some of them were found buried in holdalls in a field in Newry, County Down following a tip-off.

With law enforcement circling, Byrne fled to Dubai, making his fateful trip to Majorca in June 2023 to make what he assumed was a secret visit to holidaying members of his family.

In fact he had been tracked down by the National Crime Agency and after being extradited to the UK, went on trial and was sentenced at the Old Bailey in October last year after pleading guilty to arms offences.

Quite the curriculum vitae then, although of course there is no suggestion Byrne Junior knew anything about the extent of his father’s activities.

Nonetheless, by the time of Liam’s arrest in June 2023, Lee’s romance with Lilly Gerrard was well underway.

The pair are understood to have met a year earlier – Lilly just 18 and Lee then 23 – when Lee, who had previously worked as a car salesman in Dublin, and already driving a top-of-the-range Audi worth £35,000, moved into an exclusive gated development in the coastal town of Formby, not far from the Gerrards’ multi-million pound family home.

Six months later, the couple were spotted holidaying together on the Spanish party island Ibiza, sparking rumours of a relationship, although it was not until a month later that they went public, with Lee posting a photo of the pair together on Instagram describing Lilly as his ‘little love’.

The previous month, he had tantalised his followers by posting a photograph of his girlfriend facing away from the camera, surrounded by a large number of black, gold and silver balloons with the caption: ‘Ur the best person I’ve ever met and I’m obsessed with u.’

The pair have spent many sun-soaked holidays together since, among them ringing in the New Year with the Gerrard family in Dubai, where Lilly and Lee have now settled in a plush apartment and appear to be enjoying an enviable life in the Gulf sunshine.

Footage from Lilly’s Instagram account shows them on boat trips, and enjoying cocktails and expensive dinners. It’s understood the pair have also visited Saudi Arabia, where Lilly’s father is currently managing the Saudi pro-league club Al-Ettifaq on a contract that is not expected to end until 2027.

Of course, the arrival of a baby is going to change things for these two clearly besotted lovers.

While initially taken aback by the news, it seems the Gerrard clan are genuinely excited by the impending birth, with Steven posting the comment ‘We can’t wait’ alongside his daughter’s announcement.

‘You have to remember that they were both young parents when they had Lilly, so while [it is] a surprise, it’s not as big a deal for them as it might be for others,’ a friend of Alex’s told the Mail. ‘They are a very close family, they spend a lot of time together, and Steven treats Lee just as he would anyone else.’

It’s not known whether Steven has met his daughter’s father-in-law-to-be. Liam has, after all, been behind bars for a large duration of his son’s new relationship – although that time may arrive soon enough.

With time already served in custody taken into account, Liam Byrne could be released from prison shortly before Christmas, in time for his grandchild’s christening. What a family photo that would be.

Then again, it may be that a new baby can mark a fresh start for everyone.

At his sentencing last year, Liam’s barrister Jeremy Dein KC insisted his client did not want to find himself before the courts again. ‘He never wants to find himself in this position again and at the age of 43 he is determined to lead a good and honest life when he is released,’ he told the court.

The Gerrards – and most of all Lilly and Lee – must surely hope that’s the case.