GERRY ‘The Monk’ Hutch walked out of court a free man today after he was sensationally found not guilty of Kinahan thug David Byrne’s murder.
Presiding judge Tara Burns said the court was satisfied that members of the Hutch family carried out the attack at Dublin’s Regency Hotel and shot dead the drug dealer.
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And Ms Justice Burns said they could also draw the inference that Hutch “gave the go-ahead” for the assault which targeted Kinahan cartel boss Daniel Kinahan.
But during a four-hour reading of the Special Criminal Court’s judgment, she declared it was not the prosecution case that Hutch had planned the assault from afar.
Instead, the State claimed he was at the Regency on February 5, 2016 and he personally shot Byrne dead — an admission that State witness Jonathan Dowdall claimed Hutch made to him in the days that followed the gangland murder.
However, Ms Justice Burns said there was simply no evidence to support this.
She said it was clear former Sinn Fein councillor Dowdall “could not have found God or decided to do what was right” and he was acting completely in his “own self-interest” by giving evidence.
And she added: “In fact, a reasonable possibility arises that the Regency, was planned by Patsy Hutch and that Gerard Hutch stepped in, as head of the family to attempt to sort out the aftermath of the Regency, particularly as his own life was at risk.”
Ms Justice Burns pointed out that Hutch had previously told Dowdall “that it was not his fight”.
Hutch, 60, last of the Paddocks, Clontarf, had pleaded not guilty to Byrne’s murder on February 5. 2016.
The Kinahan associate, 33, was blasted to death during a boxing weigh-in at the north Dublin hotel.
It was the catalyst for a severe escalation in the Hutch-Kinahan feud which has so far cost 18 lives.
The State claimed Hutch was one of two gunmen disguised in fake Garda tactical uniforms who shot the thug dead as he scrambled on the ground in the hotel’s lobby.
FREE MAN
Minutes after he was acquitted today Hutch, who had his hair down to his shoulders and sported a new full length beard, walked out the front door of the Courts of Criminal Justice as passing motorists beeped their horns.
He refused to speak to reporters as he walked up Infirmary Road and got into a taxi with his solicitor.
He’s expected to return to Spain, where he has resided and owns property, within days.
Members of David Byrne’s family, including his mother Sadie Byrne, were in court for the verdict but made no comment as they left the court moments after the verdict.
During the 52-day trial, former Sinn Féin councillor Dowdall testified that he and his father handed Gerry Hutch the keycard to a room at the hotel used by one of the gunmen the night before the murder.
He also said that the accused subsequently admitted to him that he had been involved in the murder when he met him at a park in Ellenfield, Whitehall in Dublin.
The court said today that it was their view that Dowdall received a significant benefit by providing a statement to the gardaí.
Ms Justice Burns said that while he and his family will live looking over their shoulders, he now has a chance at life instead of serving a life sentence.
The court must have regard to this in relation to his evidence.
She said it must approach Dowdall’s evidence with extreme care and it causes the court “great concern”.
The judge said: “The court can expect to be told the full story, that did not happen in this case.
“One would have thought he would come to court and tell the whole truth, it’s clear he came to give specific evidence and not about his connection to the Regency and the IRA.”
The judge pointed out that Dowdall was extremely reluctant to disclose his friendship with Pearse McAuley, who she described as an “infamous and dangerous IRA terrorist”.
‘BARE FACED LIE’
He initially said he visited him in prison two or three times, not 14 as disclosed by prison records.
The judge said: “This was a bare faced lie to court.”
She also questioned his claimed that he couldn’t remember what day he met Hutch in the park, when phone records ruled out it being February 8, when he thought it happened.
Ms Justice Burns said the court was of the opinion that Hutch making an admission of a major gangland murder would have made a “searing impression” on Jonathan Dowdall’s memory.
She added: “The court is of the view that the events of the day would make a lasting impression and one would be expected to remember if it happened in the morning or the afternoon.
“The murder of Eddie Hutch was proof that a string of murders was in the offing.
“These would have been ‘standout moments’ yet Jonathan Dowdall gets the time and day wrong and doesn’t have any sense of shock at the admission.
“The court is of the view that Jonathan Dowdall is an accomplice and a potential Witness Protection Programme entrant and in light of the serious difficulties, the court is not prepared to act on his statement alone and requires corroborative evidence.”
AUTHORITY OVER GUNS
The court was satisfied that Gerry Hutch had authority over the three AK-47 rifles used in the Regency attack and was going to give them to dissident republicans whom he had asked to mediate in the feud.
The judge added: “It was satisfied he had possession of the guns by March 7, 2016 at least, but it does not permit an inference to be drawn that he had possession since Regency.
“The audio shows Patsy Hutch had control and Gerard Hutch had difficulty getting them out of Buckingham Village.
“The court found the audio contains no direct admission that Gerard Hutch was present, indeed the opposite because he said nobody knows who was there.
“The court found it odd that Jonathan Dowdall did not say something about the previous confession at this point in their conversation, it seems strange he did not seek to clarify what was said.
“The reality is Gerard Hutch is viewed as head of the Hutch family by Jonathan Dowdall but the audio does not establish Gerard Hutch’s actual presence or participation in the murder but is consistent with the Hutch family being behind the Regency attack.
“The Court is of the opinion that the segments of the audio which the prosecution seek to rely on do not inevitably give rise to the inference that Gerard Hutch was present at the Regency.
“At most, the segments give rise to a possible inference that Gerard Hutch gave the go-ahead for the Regency.
“However, the case against Gerad Hutch is not one of common design but rather participation, although one wonders what the case was intended to be before the introduction of Jonathan Dowdall as a prosecution witness.
“However, it is important to note that even if the case had been one of common design there are some sections of the audio which raise a question mark over that proposition.”
CCTV FOOTAGE
She referred to the fact that Hutch didn’t even know Buckingham Village had been searched for firearms so questioned how much he could have been involved in any of the events.
Judge Burns questioned the claims the Gerry Hutch could have been one of the gunmen at the Regency, based on the CCTV footage and his description of the event from the audio.
She said: “Segment 1156 also does not equate with Gerard Hutch having been a shooter – he comments on the calmness of the hit team in the third person and from the perspective of having watched the events rather than having been present for them.
“This is all aside from the fact that the CCTV of the Regency shows a high velocity event with the shooters running around the place at a fast pace.
“At times, Kevin Murray is incapable of keeping up with the speed and movement of the person in drag. As for the shooters, shooter No. 1 runs around the place at a fast pace.
“The owner of the Regency, James McGettigan, referred to him being slight and that he realised that he was quite young. Shooter No. 2 jumped up and down from the reception desk with agility and also proceeded to run around at speed.
“The reasonable possibility that Gerard Hutch, a man in his mid-50s at the time of the Regency, does not fit the movements of the shooters arises.”
LENGTHY JUDGEMENT
In conclusion, Ms Justice Burns said the audio evidence did not provide any corroborative evidence to Dowdall’s testimony.
She said: “Accordingly, the audio recording does not provide independent evidence of Jonathan Dowdall’s allegations against Gerard Hutch.
“While significant elements of Jonathan Dowdall’s account are established as occurring which the Court has set out, the established facts do not marry together to support Jonathan Dowdall’s account in relation to his allegations against Gerard Hutch.
“As the Court has determined that it cannot rely on the evidence of Jonathan Dowdall alone for the reasons set out, the Court is therefore not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the guilt of Gerard Hutch on the charge of murder of David Byrne and will return a verdict of Not Guilty on Count No. 1.”
Meanwhile, two long-time friends of the Hutch family were found guilty of acting as getaway drivers during the Regency Hotel attack.
Judges at the Special Criminal Court agreed with the State’s case that Paul Murphy’s taxi and Jason Bonney’s jeep were part of a convoy of six cars parked up at a GAA club in Marino, Dublin, before the shooting.
Prosecutors also said Murphy, 61, and Bonney, 52, helped two of the raiders escape after David Byrne was blasted dead on February 5, 2016.
Ms Justice Tara Burns said the non-jury court was satisfied both men knew of the Hutch crime group when they made their cars available to it.
And while delivering the judgement in relation to Bonney, she said the court had been “lied to in the most malevolent manner” when his dead father was “implicated” in the Regency attack.
The judge added: “That anyone thought this would be accepted by the Special Criminal Court is quite simply amazing.”
Earlier, Ms Justice Burns said the court would have preferred to deliver the verdict at an earlier stage but the “huge pressure” on their resources meant each of the three judges had been engaged in other matters.
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