Referred to by the nickname Frost, the millionaire drugs baron said to be behind the murderous acid attack on Danny Cahalane was notable by his absence in the dock at Winchester Crown Court.
Wanted by police, the 26-year-old, whose real name is Ryan Kennedy, is believed to have left the country some years ago, travelling between Thailand, Spain and Dubai, where he is currently understood to be holed up.
But, as the Daily Mail can reveal, Frost’s roots go back to a deprived corner of south-east London with a reputation for trouble. And it was while living on the Rockingham Estate that his criminal career began.
A decade ago, the then-teenager stole two £500 hoverboards from the toy department of Harrods. He got away with one, but when he returned for the second, he was caught.
‘I’m sorry, it was a terrible mistake,’ he told magistrates as he narrowly escaped being sent to a young offender’s institute.
On hand to support him were his mother Denise Blackburn and father Daniel Kennedy – both of whom were on benefits and subject to a parenting order at the time. They described their son as being ‘hard work’. But they were hardly role models.
A few years later, in 2019, the trio were caught on CCTV stealing a tourist’s handbag containing money, jewellery and passports at Heathrow Airport.
Footage showed Kennedy, 60, and Blackburn, 52, chuckling as they sized up a luggage trolley being used by a couple from Ghana who had just touched down.
The 26-year-old drugs baron known as Frost, whose real name is Ryan Kennedy
Frost likes to show off his gangster lifestyle in videos posted online
While Blackburn could be seen wandering over to block the owner’s view of his bags, Kennedy pulled a handbag off their trolley.
Their son was waiting in the car park to drive them away. They were arrested later after police trawled through airport security footage. All three pleaded guilty to various offences, including possession of cannabis, with Frost conditionally discharged for 12 months.
When he started dealing drugs is unclear but those on the estate say that his family was well known.
‘They call him Frost because he used to hang around with a lot of black kids and he was the only white guy,’ explained one resident. ‘He didn’t have that name as a young kid – it was only when he… started getting into dodgy stuff.
‘Frost wasn’t the sort of guy who would always be hanging around on corners terrorising the neighbourhood – but he wasn’t the sort you wanted to cross.’
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Pictures on Facebook show Frost posing around the estate making ‘gun’ gestures with his hand.
A YouTube video posted six years ago shows Frost, dripping in designer gear, emerge from beside a scantily clad woman in the rear of a white Rolls-Royce to sing a rap song laced with street slang referring to drugs and guns.
Another video features balaclava-clad men as they go shopping in central London, handing over cash for designer gear.
Like Frost, Danny Cahalane also grew up on the Rockingham Estate. But 11 years his senior, he was initially friends with Frost’s older brother, also called Danny, who was closer to his age.
Giving evidence, Mr Cahalane’s ex-wife Paris Wilson told the court the pair had known each other since they were around 13 or 14 when they used to ‘steal things from arcades’.
Given the age gap, in private Mr Cahalane would refer to Frost as a ‘child’. But there was no doubt the younger man was boss.
As Joanna Martin KC told the murder trial: ‘Drugs and the supply of drugs to others for profit had, it would seem, played a part in both Danny’s and Frost’s life for many years.’
At one point, Frost tried to get Mr Cahalane to bring cannabis from Thailand to the UK. While he refused, others did not. The gang regularly used what are known as ‘flyers’ – individuals paid to take holidays in Thailand and then to return to the UK with drug-filled luggage.
Mr Cahalane and Frost would communicate via WhatsApp with cash sent to Dubai in suitcases.
A picture online shows Frost holding his daughter, posing in white Arabian robes against a backdrop of sculpted sand dunes
Paris Wilson, who was convicted over the killing of her former husband Danny Cahalane
Like Frost, Cahalane had grown up on the Rockingham Estate in London. As a young man he racked up dozens of convictions for theft, burglary, assaults and possession of drugs
As prosecutor Ms Martin told the jury: ‘Paris Wilson is clear that she wants money. In her messages with Danny, she is angry that he has a new house’
The pair fell out after Mr Cahalane was sent two bulk packages of drugs to sell.
Mr Cahalane owed Frost £84,000 for them but claimed a dealer beneath him ripped him off. He lost more of the cash gambling. In the end his debt stood at £120,000.
For months, Mr Cahalane stalled on repayment, even resorting to cutting up magazines to form into bundles of ‘cash’ that he photographed and sent to Frost.
With people of his own to pay, and a reputation to protect, Frost needed to teach Danny ‘a significant lesson,’ Ms Martin said.
The lesson, as we know, involved being doused with acid at his home – not by Frost, but by a gang directed by him.
Among the nine defendants in the trial were two of Frost’s key lieutenants, Abdul-Rasheed Adedoja and Ramarnee Bakas-Sithole, both 23.
Brought up on the Rockingham Estate, the court heard they were ‘general trusted organisers – sorting people out, paying them for work done, organising stolen cars, and generally involved in the drugs trade’.
It was claimed that they in turn arranged for others to travel to Plymouth to, firstly, attempt to kidnap Cahalane and then to carry out the acid attack.
At all times Frost was kept abreast of what was happening. Along with Cahalane’s ex-wife, a second woman was also charged with murder. Jude Hill, who came from Plymouth, was living in Thailand at the time of the attack.
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But the prosecution alleged that the 43-year-old was a known associate of Frost’s and had arranged for the two men responsible for the acid attack to stay with a friend of hers ahead of the hit.
Hill had first-hand experience of Frost’s attitude to those who crossed him. The court was told her partner and their son had got into debt with him and the family duly ‘suffered the consequences’.
In September 2024, Hill’s house and car were damaged in an arson attack. While no one was ever caught, she told police that she believed Frost was behind it.
She then fled to Thailand – where she was involved in the supply of cannabis to the UK.
Hill had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs and will be sentenced today.
Regarding the acid attack, Hill told police she was unaware of what the men staying with her friend were planning to do.
Asked what she knew of Frost, she replied ‘scumbag’, adding: ‘He’s just not a very nice person that I know of.’
Nine people were charged with offences relating to Mr Cahalane. Wilson was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and attempted kidnapping, while Adedoja and Israel Augustus, 26, were found guilty of murder. Bakas-Sithole was found guilty of manslaughter, while Hill was cleared of murder and manslaughter.
Arrone Mukuna, 25, and Jean Mukuna, 24, were found guilty of attempted kidnapping, with Isanah Sungum found guilty of being a member of an organised crime gang. Brian Kalemba, 23, was cleared of the same charge.
Back on the London estate where he grew up, locals say Frost suddenly disappeared five or six years ago.
‘You would see him around then he suddenly vanished,’ said one. ‘I heard he got in trouble and he ran away from the police. They said he hurt his leg in a car crash, he then disappeared. Some people say he’s in Dubai, some people say he’s in Spain.’
Approached at the family’s flat, Frost’s mother refused to comment on the case or her son’s whereabouts, saying: ‘I can’t talk about it. I’m stressed out.’
A photo of him on her Facebook page offers a clue. Holding his daughter, Frost poses in white Arabian robes against a backdrop of sculpted sand dunes.
A long way from the Rockingham Estate. But, if police have their way, soon he will be back in the UK to face justice.
