A MAN’S voice on a YouTube video of the Regency Hotel shooting can be heard shouting: “F*** me pink, there’s no way they’re cops”, a court was told yesterday.
Detective Garda Paul Darley, the incident room co-ordinator for the Regency investigation, told the Special Criminal Court that the video taken at the hotel on the day of David Byrne’s death was uploaded to the video-sharing platform on February 9, 2016.
The clip lasting one minute and five seconds was titled ‘Shocking Dublin weigh-in shooting’.
It begins in the reception area of the hotel and shows Mr Byrne in a prone position on the floor with “his injuries clearly visible”, Det Gda Darley said.
A male voice is heard saying: “F*** me pink, there’s no way they’re cops. There they are in the van, there’s no way they’re cops.
“Look at that young fella, don’t go near him.
“They’re stuck down there with the things, they’re trying to get out with their van.”
Det Gda Darley said the bystander is one of three people heard on the video.
He said once they were aware of it gardai took steps to have it taken down from the platform.
He also said a number of searches were carried out on February 23, 2016, including one in Coolock, Dublin.
He said after the searches there was a conference held by gardai about the progress of the investigation and their attention was drawn to a headline on the front page of the Evening Herald which said: ‘Kinahan Must Die’.
The headline inside read: ‘Chilling threat issued that gang war won’t end until Kinahan is dead’.
Det Gda Darley said the quote was attributed to the person of interest in the Coolock search.
Another garda witness told the court that Jonathan Dowdall told him Gerry Hutch had confessed to murdering Mr Byrne when they met in a park on February 8.
NOT GUILTY PLEA
In his evidence to the court before Christmas, Dowdall had alleged that this meeting took place between 11am and midday in Whitehall “after the Sunday World came out but before Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s brother Eddie was murdered”.
The taxi driver was shot dead at his home on Poplar Row in Dublin on February 8, the Special Criminal Court has heard, and the Sunday World showing two of the gunmen on the front page with the headline ‘Dressed To Kill’ came out on February 7.
Going through notes Det Gda Cathal Connolly took from the former Sinn Fein councillor in May and July 2022 with the officer, Hutch’s counsel Brendan Grehan SC said: “So we’ve nailed it down that it was February 8 when he says the meeting took place?”
Garda Connolly replied: “Correct.”
Hutch, 59, denies murdering Mr Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
Paul Murphy, 61, and Jason Bonney, 52, have pleaded not guilty to lesser charges.
The trial continues.
