A gun thug who won't be released from jail until his little girl is nearly a teenager was told by a judge: "It's your fault."
Ryan Kennedy had control of a lethal German submachine gun and an Italian revolver with his "partner in crime" Liam Rogan.
Yet in early 2020 the convicted drug dealers found themselves facing prison over the terrifying kidnap of a vulnerable 17-year-old boy.
READ MORE: Thug got autistic brother to hide submachine gun in family home
The pair "exploited" Liam Rogan's autistic brother, Jake Rogan, into stashing their Heckler & Koch MP5 at his family's Everton home.
But when the submachine gun was seized by police that February - while they were being held on remand at Walton jail over the kidnap - they used an illicit mobile phone to direct their revolver to be moved from Everton to Fazakerley.
A sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday heard how Kennedy, now 28, and Liam Rogan, now 32, were previously convicted of offences including kidnap and assault at a trial in March 2020.
The two thugs had bundled a "vulnerable" teenager into a car outside a takeaway in September 2019 and attacked him with a stun gun.
They tried to burgle a school wear shop while still holding the victim, and threatened him with a Samurai sword, before he fled into woods.
In April 2020, Kennedy, of Westmoreland Place, Everton, was branded "dangerous" and jailed for eight years, with an extended three years on licence.
But then their gun past came to light, with Kennedy convicted of possessing both weapons and arranging the transfer of the revolver at a trial last November.
Ben Williams, defending Kennedy, told the court a letter from his client's partner referred to their daughter, who is now aged two and a half.
Mr Williams said: "She has spent the early years of her life without him really able to be in her life, or to even have any contact with her at all for the first 18 months of her life."
The barrister added: "He stands now on the precipice of another long prison sentence, which will mean inevitably he's not released from custody, or even considered for release from custody I should say, until he's in his mid-30s, when his daughter is approaching her teens.
"That is of course, when one considers the principal impacts of this sentencing exercise, a real impact on him and those who care about him."
In 2013, at the age of 19, Kennedy was convicted of six drug dealing offences - mainly for Class A drugs - and locked up for six years and four months.
However, Mr Williams said there was "a very different side" to Kennedy and a letter from his mum spoke of "experiences in his youth", which "still continue to affect Mr Kennedy daily" and "contributed to him having been dragged so far into criminal behaviour".
Judge Brian Cummings, QC, said he had considered all of the defendants' personal mitigation, but it was of "limited significance".
He said: "I'm acutely conscious there will be others, themselves blameless, who stand to be affected by the sentences imposed in this case.
"I'm afraid that's all part of the misery which accompanies serious crime and the responsibility for it lies with the offender, not with the court."
He said Kennedy must have realised there would be a "very severe" penalty if he was caught for two separate sets of guns offences.
The judge added that his dealings with the revolver, when on remand in prison, was "a glaring aggravating feature".
He told Kennedy: "I'm acutely aware of the position of your partner and your baby daughter.
"But the brutal reality is that child was born either shortly before or shortly after you went into prison and you nonetheless committed offences - certainly in relation to the revolver - from behind bars.
"You knew the consequences that would have for everyone were you to be caught.
"It is your fault."
Judge Cummings jailed Kennedy for 13 years, consecutive to his existing eight-year extended sentence, as a woman sobbed in the public gallery.
Kennedy has to serve at least two thirds of his existing extended sentence - five years and four months - before he can apply for his release.
Usually at that stage, if he convinced the Parole Board he was no longer a risk, he would then be released.
But now, he will also have to serve half of his 13-year sentence - six and a half years.
Taking into account the time he has already served, this means he has around a further 10 years - at least - in prison.
Liam Rogan was jailed for seven and a half years for the kidnap offences in April 2020, before he received a further two years that September for dealing Class A drugs, which took his sentence up to nine and a half years.
He admitted possessing the submachine gun, but was found guilty at trial of possessing the revolver and arranging its transfer.
His barrister, Lloyd Morgan, urged Judge Cummings to "balance some mercy" against the sentence he must impose as part of his public duty.
He also asked the judge to consider giving his client more than the usual 25% credit for admitting possession of the submachine gun at a plea and trial preparation hearing, because he had confessed to it in his police interview.
Judge Cummings said he was unable to do that, partly because of case law.
He added: "Another part of the reason is that I reject as wholly implausible the version of events that you gave in evidence regarding the circumstances in which you acquired possession of the submachine gun - supposedly finding it unattended in a public park - which explanation was plainly intended to serve the twin purposes of one, minimising your own responsibility, and two, avoiding having to talk about Ryan Kennedy’s involvement."
The judge jailed Liam Rogan for 11 years and three months, consecutive to his existing sentence.
He added: "In effect, you are now serving a sentence of 20 years and nine months."
A man in the public gallery moaned "f***ing b*****ks" and left the courtroom.
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