GERRY ‘The Monk’ Hutch said mobster Daniel Kinahan looked “in a f***ing heap” after the Regency Hotel murder on tapes played to the Special Criminal Court.
And at another point the murder accused told former Sinn Fein Councillor Jonathan Dowdall that the six-man hit team that killed David Byrne on that day hadn’t all known each other.
The recordings were made as the pair drove towards Northern Ireland on March 7, 2016. Gardai had fitted a recording device to Dowdall’s Toyota Land Cruiser.
The pair described gardai as “running around like headless chickens” as they probed the case.
In the tapes Dowdall is heard saying: “I don’t think the way the papers are portraying it that they know.
“I don’t think they actually have a f***ing clue about the Regency. I don’t think the police know what is being portrayed.”
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Hutch replied: “Ah they don’t know. Sure the f***ing six people don’t even know who the six are. I definitely know two people there don’t know each other.
“They’ll definitely be 100 per cent on the man and the woman, they’ll know who they are. The rest is speculation.”
This is a reference to photographs of two of the gunmen fleeing the murder scene. One wearing a flat cap was identified as dissident Kevin Murray. Another was a man dressed as a woman.
Hutch also mentioned seeing a picture of cartel boss Daniel Kinahan in the newspaper and saying he looks “in a f***ing heap”.
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Dowdall replies: “Gerard, let’s be f***ing honest, you’re used to pressure from the cops.”
And the Monk then says: “I can see why he’s like that. If some c***t came in with an AK47 and I got out by the skin of my f***ing teeth. If he wasn’t in an awful way, I’d say he’s totally disturbed.”
Dowdall then spoke about the net closing in on the cartel and said they were going to jail either way.
He said: “This morning the Spanish authorities are running their case through. The horse f***ing fixing, there’s too much.”
The court heard Hutch respond in the recording, saying: “The English are all over them a long time, and CAB will be on to them.”
Dowdall then said: “Why I think they got away with it for so long, they weren’t located anywhere. It’s like a company in the North, operating in the South. Bouncing between countries. I think those days are up. It makes them all look very stupid.”
BIG ARMY
Hutch then said: “If that was in England everyone would be nicked.”
At the opening of the trial the court heard it was the Prosecution’s case that Hutch and Dowdall travelled to Northern Ireland to ask the IRA to mediate in the feud with the Kinahans.
The pair also mentioned Gerry Hutch’s brother, Eddie ‘Neddy’ Hutch, who was murdered three days after David Byrne, and that his killers would “have to go” if the IRA were able to broker any peace deal with the Kinahans.
Dowdall said there’s “too many of them” and “them Kinahans are a big f***ing army”.
Hutch said: “The c**ts who done Neddy have to f***ing go.” He referred to them as “just f*ing hitmen” and added the “shooting has to stop” and the IRA “would have to be at the meet”.
The trial has already heard there would be a reference to “three yokes”, which the State would say are the AK47s used by three men disguised as gardai in the assault on the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
‘THREE YOKES’
The pair are also heard discussing the chances that the Gardai might believe dissident Republicans were involved in Byrne’s murder and a plan to send the “three yokes” North.
Hutch said: “You wouldn’t believe they’re not associated. That’s what I said to Patsy. I want to throw them up there regardless. They should’ve been sent up last week.
“They’re not on the fringes of the city. They’re not in bleeding town. I just said, ‘when you’re ready let me know, get rid of them’. I had to push him to get them outta the village.”
In a reference to the murder of Real IRA member Vinnie Ryan in Dublin the previous week and the shooting of his older brother Alan a few years before, Dowdall replied: “Even the (Vinnie) Ryan thing, coincidence or not, the car. They disowned him there yesterday or the day before saying old provos and basically Alan (Ryan) and him sickened the old provos with their whole high-profile appearances.
“His brother came out with a statement that the Regency was nothing to do with him. There’s too much, Gerard, leading back up there. If I was a copper, it’d be confusing. Who did it?”
Hutch replied: “I’d say any smart copper be saying it was a joint yoke.”
Dowdall then said: “They were definitely brought in the (Colonel) Gaddafi era and all that stuff.”
QUESTIONED AT AIRPORT
Hutch responds: “That’s why I said give them yokes. They’re willing to help but what can they do, I don’t know what level or not.
“What he said about the Contos (Continuity IRA). The Contos are not capable of doing that.”
Hutch also told how he was questioned by gardai at Dublin Airport in the weeks after the Regency attack.
And Dowdall appeared to give Hutch advice on building a bomb and the damage it might do.
Hutch asked him: “What about the rubber stuff, plastic stuff?”, and Dowdall replied: “I’ll get in touch with Wee and I’ll try to get something set up with Pearse (McCauley).”
The pair also discussed politics on the journey and he mentioned speaking to “Mary” about being “dragged into” something, and he spoke highly of current Sinn Fein Housing spokesman Eoin O Broin.
The recordings will continue to be played to the court tomorrow.
Hutch, 59, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Kinahan cartel thug Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
His co-accused Paul Murphy, 61, of Swords, Co Dublin, and Jason Bonney, 51, of Portmarnock, Dublin 13, have pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the facilitation of Byrne’s murder by providing motor vehicles for a criminal gang on February 5, 2016. The trial continues.
