The 44-year-old career criminal – who is set to share granddad duties with Steven Gerrard – must wear an electronic tag and abide by strict house arrest conditions including a curfew
Drug cartel boss Liam Byrne whose son is having a baby with Steven Gerrard’s daughter has been released from prison early. The violent career criminal was released from London’s Belmarsh prison earlier this month, the Irish Mirror reports.
But the 44-year-old must wear an electronic tag and abide by strict house arrest conditions, known as the ‘Home Detention Curfew Scheme’. Under the rules Byrne – who fled his native Ireland after more than €2million of his criminal empire was seized – must provide a registered address and remain there until the restrictions imposed on him are lifted.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Ministry of Justice said: “Anyone released into Home Detention Curfew faces strict licence conditions and must be tagged. Those who break the rules face being returned to custody.”
Liam Byrne’s son Lee – who is not involved in crime – is dating Lilly-Ella Gerrard, daughter of the Liverpool legend Steven. The young couple are expecting a baby together.
The 20-year-old social media influencer previously told her followers: “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.
Byrne’s sensational release from prison comes despite him only being sentenced in a high profile trial at the Old Bailey at the end of October 2024. He was jailed after years of being in the headlines – from the gangland killing of his brother David in Dublin’s Regency Hotel, to his involvement in the Kinahan Hutch feud and a major CAB case that saw his luxury home, cars and jewellery seized.
It had emerged that due to time already served in the UK and in Spain, and due to the fact that half a prisoner’s sentence is usually cut anyway – Byrne was facing release towards the end of this year. However, prison bosses have clearly decided that Byrne qualified for an even earlier release provided he wears an electronic tag.
The former Crumlin based mobster, who was considered mob boss Daniel Kinahan’s number two, was jailed for his role in trying to acquire firearms from anywhere he could find them after he was caught doing so in secret encrypted conversations that were hacked in 2021.
The plot was designed so that investigators would find a cache of 11 powerful weapons hidden in a field in Newry, Co Down, in May 2021 following a ‘tip off’ from brother-in-law and crime boss Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, who met officers and told them about it from behind bars while awaiting sentence for importing drugs. Bomber, who was already serving a 21-year sentence for conspiracy to import €36million of cocaine and was handed down an additional six-year sentence for his central role in the plot.
Following sentencing the National Crime Agency (NCA) issued new mugshots of Byrne, Bomber and co-accused man Shaun Kent. Kent, Byrne and Bomber’s son Jack Kavanagh – who were all jailed over the plot – are now all free men. Only Kavanagh, who is already serving a lengthy sentence, will remain behind bars for at least another 10 years.
In a statement following sentencing the NCA said the three men engaged in “an elaborate plot” to acquire firearms to help ‘Bomber,” who they called “the head of an organised crime group” achieve a lighter sentence. While on remand they said Kavanagh “set in motion a series of events that he hoped would result in a significant discount to any sentence he was likely to get at the end of his trial”.
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