Lilly Gerrard’s gangster future father-in-law is back on the streets of Britain a mere three months after he was sentenced to five years in jail for his part in a submachine gun haul plot.
Kinahan Cartel mob boss Liam Byrne, 44, who has connections to three of the most wanted men in the world, was let out with an electronic tag as part of the Prime Minister’s controversial Early Release Scheme to ease overcrowding in prisons, sources said.
Keir Starmer was criticised last year after a slew of dangerous criminals were released as part of Labour’s attempt to take pressure off the prison service.
Although Byrne’s release is likely to please his son Lee, who is engaged to and having a baby with Steven Gerrard’s daughter Lilly, sources said his neighbours are ‘terrified’ that violence could once more erupt on their streets.
In November 2023, criminals targeted an address on the estate where the Byrne family live, setting fire to the front of the property.
Byrne, who is on a curfew of around 6pm to 8am, has already been spotted at a posh restaurant popular with footballers and celebrities and around the village of Formby, where he lives in an exclusive gated estate.
The gangster had been on remand for ten months before his sentencing last October. A source said: ‘He seems very relaxed and carefree. Obviously happy to be out of Belmarsh and home with the family.’
Another source with knowledge of the area told MailOnline: ‘People are really frightened. It seems like an extraordinarily short amount of time to have served.
Kinahan gangster Liam Byrne (bottom) was seen near Daniel Kinahan (top) at the funeral of his brother David
Lilly Gerrard, 20, (pictured), Steven Gerrard’s eldest daughter, is due to marry the son of a famed Irish gangster
Liam Byrne’s son Lee (left) is engaged to and having a baby with Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard’s daughter Lilly (right)
‘Everyone is absolutely horrified by the fact that they’re living there. There’s a real fear among the local community.
‘There are people who have previously taken their kids out of a school [that some of Liam’s children are at]. They don’t want their [kids] becoming friends with them because it’s dangerous. You don’t want them going around to their house, do you?
‘It’s just a nightmare. They’re terrified.
‘In Liverpool we’ve seen children getting shot on the doorstep so there’s disquiet about the fact that they’re there.
‘There seems to be a fear of them [by other gangsters] in Liverpool – they seem to have taken things up a notch.
‘People are scared that there are people like that kicking about.’
Another source said: ‘Everyone knows Liam is in the Kinahan crime firm, and they have serious enemies.’
The news of his release no doubt went down differently in Liverpool and England legend Gerrard’s household with his pregnant daughter Lilly soon to marry into the Byrne family.
While there is no suggestion the Gerrards are involved in criminality, the Byrne family has a family tree brimming with gangsters, including his mobster father James ‘Jaws’ Byrne, his brother David Byrne who was machine-gunned to death, his jailed murderer cousin ‘Fat Freddie’ Thompson and jailed Kinahan chief brother-in-law Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh.
Liam Byrne was arrested on suspicion of firearms offences while out at a restaurant with family in Alcudia, Mallorca
He and his brother-in-law Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, 56, were part of a ruse of leading police to a cache of weapons (pictured)
They hoped Kavanagh’s sentence would be decreased if he gave the location of the planted weapons to police
Kavanagh (pictured) rose through the ranks of the Kinahan Cartel, helped by his association with Liam Byrne
Liam’s father was formerly associated with the godfather of the Hutch crime family Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
The Byrnes are still associated with Kinahan godfather Christy ‘The Dapper Don’ Kinahan Sr and his sons Daniel ‘Chess’ Kinahan and Christopher ‘Mano’ Kinahan Jr – whose involvement in conflicts with rival gangs have led to the murders of at least 20 people.
Christy Kinahan and his sons Daniel and Christy junior are now three of the world’s most wanted men after the US authorities put a combined $15million bounty on their heads.
The source added: ‘[Lilly Gerrard] will never ever be free of it now. With those sort of people, they either end up in prison or with a bullet in their heads.
‘You live with that your whole life. Why would you want to get involved in that?’
Other people in the area have heard for themselves just how terrifying Byrne is.
A recording obtained by MailOnline that we are not releasing to protect those involved saw Byrne seem to threaten a local businessman in 2022.
Pictured: Liam Byrne’s son Lee (far left) pictured with Lilly and Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard played for Liverpool and now lives in Bahrain. He commutes to Saudi Arabia, where he manages football team Al-Ettifaq
He is married to Alex Curran, a model with whom he shares four children
Lee has been welcomed into the Gerrard family, here posing with one of the Gerrard’s dogs and Steven’s wife, the model Alex Curran
Lilly revealed to her Instagram followers last week that she is expecting a child with Lee
Lilly has shared images of herself wearing a ring on her engagement finger with a large diamond on it
Byrne made phone calls that year to a Merseyside businessman who was said to have owed money to one of his associates.
During one of the calls Byrne said that he wanted to have a meeting with the businessman, and needed just ‘ten minutes of his time.’
The developer told Byrne that one of his family had Covid but the Irishman insisted on seeing him. Byrne said: ‘I am Liam Byrne from Dublin. You don’t know me but you probably know people who do know me’ and said that he wanted a face to face meeting with him.
He said: ‘I don’t like speaking on the telephone’ and wanted to speak to the man ‘face to face.’
Byrne told the developer that he visited his offices in Liverpool but there ‘was nobody there.’
Pictured: Liam Byrne’s brother David, a Kinahan cartel enforcer who was shot dead in Dublin in 2016
Christy ‘The Dapper Don’ Kinahan Snr (pictured) was born in Dublin’s north inner city but while in prison in the 1980s he worked on learning languages and business. Upon his release, he relocated to the continent where he established links to European, Asian and South America. He worked in the shadows, creating one of the most ruthless drugs networks in the continent
Daniel Kinahan (pictured) is a suspected crime boss and boxing promoter who once represented ‘The Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury
Daniel Kinahan, Christy ‘The Dapper Don’ Kinahan Snr and Christy Jnr are all wanted, with US rewards totalling $15million
The businessman, from Merseyside, said that he ‘did not understand the call’ and the matter was later reported to police.
Another source said: ‘We all know Liam was being used to put pressure on this person to pay a debt. It’s not just Liam, it’s his association with the Kinahan mob. They are scary people.’
In October 2024, the Dublin-born gangster was jailed for five years for his role in astonishing firearms conspiracy involving machine guns.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) smashed the plot, which was an attempt to pervert the course of justice on behalf of Kinahan crime boss Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, who was serving a 21-year sentence in HMP Belmarsh for conspiring to import £36million of drugs into the UK.
Kavanagh instructed men including Byrne to source and plant machine guns in a bid to get his sentence reduced.
Liam Byrne’s cousin is ‘Fat Freddie’ Thompson (pictured), who was convicted of a murder as part of the Hutch-Kinahan feud and sentenced to life in jail
Thompson took over the Dublin Kinahan Cartel after Christy ‘The Dapper Don’ Kinahan Snr went to prison in 1997
James ‘Jaws’ Byrne (centre) and Sadie Byrne (right) outside court after the murder of their son David Byrne
Gerry Hutch (centre) enjoys a night out in Lanzarote with James ‘Jaws’ Byrne (left) and his wife Sadie (right), Joanne’s parents, in 2014
Gerry Hutch, pictured on April 17, 2023, walked out of the Special Criminal Court in Dublin after he was found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne in 2016 – who was shot dead at the Regency Hotel
But the ruse unravelled when the NCA gained access to Encrochat messages sent by Kavanagh to the men and found the haul of weapons buried in County Down.
The haul included three Skorpion machine guns, three Heckler and Koch self-loading pistols, a PPS43 submachine gun, a POF PK1 submachine gun and an Uzi machine gun.
Byrne was sentenced to five years in prison and Kavanagh was sentenced to six years in prison to be served consecutively to his existing 21-year sentence for conspiring to import drugs.
Now he’s out of jail, sources told MailOnline that Liam has returned to his home in a gated newbuild estate in the Freshfield area of Formby.
The exclusive area is synonymous with footballers and multi-million pound mansions.
