Hutch walks free after 52-day trial and 140 witnesses

Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch leaving the Special Criminal Court after been acquitted of murdering David Byrne on Monday. Picture: Colin Keegan

Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch wakes up a free man today after he was found not guilty of the murder of Kinahan gang member David Byrne following one of the country’s most explosive criminal trials. 

Delivering a lengthy judgment at the Special Criminal Court on Monday, after a trial that ran for 52 days, Ms Justice Tara Burns said there were significant concerns over star State witness Jonathan Dowdall’s “reliability and his relationship with the truth”.

She also said the infamous Garda surveillance audio of Dowdall and Hutch’s trip up North a month after the killing did not contain “any direct admission” that The Monk was present at the Regency Hotel on the day of the shooting.

It is over seven years since Byrne was killed in the Regency Hotel in north Dublin on February 5, 2016.

His murder at a boxing weigh-in, held by Daniel Kinahan’s promotions company, led to a brutal and bloody gangland feud between the Kinihan and Hutch crime empires that has claimed 18 lives to date.

Members of Byrne's family listened in court as Ms Justice Burns said the court was satisfied the attack was orchestrated by the Hutch gang, but she stressed that Gerard Hutch was accused of being present at the time of the shooting and of having participated in the killing.

She said it is a “reasonable possibility on the evidence” that the murder was planned by Hutch’s brother, Patsy, and that Gerard had stepped in afterward.

Dowdall evidence

The main evidence against the defendant was from Dowdall, a former Sinn Féin councillor, who testified that Gerard Hutch had collected key cards for a room in the Regency Hotel from Dowdall and his father on February 4, 2016, the evening before the attack.

The court did not accept Dowdall's claims that Hutch had admitted to him that he carried out the murder just a few days later.

Referencing the audio surveillance which recorded Hutch saying the six people who carried out the attack "do not know who was involved”, Ms Justice Burns said this would’ve been a “very odd comment” for Hutch to make to a person he supposedly confessed to.

Ms Justice Burns also addressed the character and reliability of Dowdall as a witness, saying he did not find "God or decide to do what was right” and instead was “acting out of his own self-interests” when giving evidence against Hutch. 

Prior to pleading guilty to a lesser charge, Dowdall had also been charged with Byrne’s murder.

The judge referred to Dowdall being assessed for the witness protection programme, saying he was expected to tell the court the “whole story in a forthright manner, warts and all” but this was “not the case”.

'Established facts do not marry together'

Summing up the evidence, the judge said the audio recording does not provide independent evidence to support Dowdall’s allegations against Hutch and the “established facts do not marry together".

“The audio does not contain any direct admission by Gerard Hutch that he was actually present at the Regency and was a shooter,” said Ms Justice Burns. 

“Indeed, the opposite appears to be the case."

Earlier, co-accused Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney had been found guilty of acting as getaway drivers on the day of the Regency killing. They will be sentenced next month.

Dressed in a navy suit jacket with a white open-collar shirt, and now sporting a large beard and long hair, Hutch left the court and took a taxi amid a significant media scrum.

Justice Minister Simon Harris said he noted that An Garda Síochána's investigation into the murder and events at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016, remains live.