GERRY Hutch’s acquittal for the Regency murder was a sign the Special Criminal Court works, the Dail has heard.
It comes as TDs were asked to extend its operation by a further year.
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Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has asked politicians to allow the non-jury court to continue operating in organised crime and anti-terror cases.
During a Dail debate on a report advocating overhauling the legislation around non-jury courts, Fianna Fail TD Jim O’Callaghan said the SCC must stay as although the domestic terror threat has declined, the threat from organised crime has risen.
And he said the acquittal of Hutch for the killing of Kinahan Cartel thug David Byrne proved the system works.
He said: “Anyone who watched or listened to that (case) or even just followed it in the media could see it was a very effective and fair court.
“I am not advocating we get rid of jury trials but one of the advantages of a decision from the Special Criminal Court is that we get a written judgement which explains the reasons the court believes somebody is not guilty or guilty.
“This is not provided in ordinary jury courts, which is not to suggest we should get rid of them.
“But let us not present the Special Criminal Court as a permanent institution of injustice. It is not.”
Acquitting Hutch, Ms Justice Tara Burns, said while the SCC was satisfied members of the Hutch family were responsible for the Regency attack, it was not satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt that The Monk was guilty of murder.
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.
Minutes after he was acquitted 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.
IRISH SUN PODCAST DIVES INTO TRIAL
The latest episode of the The Irish Sun’s hit podcast ‘The Kinahans’ dives into the Regency trial, which ended in April.
Damien Lane gives listeners an in-depth analysis of the big moments that shook the Special Criminal Court, where the case was heard before presiding judge Tara Burns and two other judges.
Irish Sun reporter Michael Doyle, who reported on every aspect of the gangland trial, gives expert analysis on how former Sinn Fein councillor Dowdall’s evidence ultimately led to Gerry walking away from court a free man.
Explaining how Dowdall’s decision to turn state witness shocked seasoned journalists who had followed the ongoing Kinahan-Hutch feud.
He said: “So it wasn’t until the case actually opens. Sean Gillane (prosecuting senior counsel) opened it to those three judges on October 18 that we heard for the first time what the case against Gerry Hutch was, because we’d never heard before what their evidence was.
BOMBSHELL EVIDENCE
“And that’s when it emerged that Jonathan Dowdall had made a statement saying that Gerry Hutch had met him in a park in Whitehall a few days after the Regency, and that he confessed to being one of the gunmen that day.
“This was bombshell evidence because in seven years of writing articles about the Regency . . . there’s never been any suggestion that Gerry Hutch was actually one of the gunmen who carried out the attack.
“It’s the first time we’ve heard this. And it certainly took us all unaware because we weren’t expecting this at all.
“But it just came from a claim from Jonathan Dowdall, which the Gardai had only learned about a week or two before the trial started.”
Dowdall had contacted the DPP via his own solicitor and told them he was willing to give evidence against Gerry Hutch.
But the podcast unravels how the case against Hutch began to crumble when Dowdall took to the witness stand to give his evidence.