Hutch and Dowdall fail in bid to prevent Special Criminal Court trial

Judge said there was no basis in law to prevent the DPP certifying that their trials for the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in February 2016 should be tried before the Special Criminal Court

Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch and former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall have lost High Court actions aimed at preventing them from being tried before the non-jury Special Criminal Court on murder charges arising out of the Regency Hotel attack. Picture: RollingNews.ie

Gerry "The Monk" Hutch and former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall have lost High Court actions aimed at preventing them from being tried before the non-jury Special Criminal Court on murder charges arising out of the Regency Hotel attack.

In his judgment on Friday, Mr Justice Anthony Barr said he was satisfied to dismiss the men's actions.

The judge said having considered all the various arguments raised by the parties, he had reached the conclusion that all of the reliefs sought by the two accused "must be refused".

The judge added there was no basis in law to prevent the DPP certifying that their trials on the charge of murder should be tried before the Special Criminal Court. Hutch, 58, who was extradited from Spain, and former Dublin City councillor Jonathan Dowdall, 44, of Navan Road, Dublin, are both charged with the murder of David Byrne, 33, at the Whitehall, Dublin, hotel on February 5, 2016.

In their​ judicial review proceedings, they both sought declarations from the High Court that their trials before the Special Criminal Court would be unlawful and in breach of their fundamental rights because they claimed the court is operating as a permanent court when it was only set up on a temporary basis nearly 50 years ago.

Their actions were against the Minister for Justice, Dáil Eireann, Ireland and the Attorney General, while Seanad Eireann is also a respondent in the Hutch case.

They also sought various declarations including that a trial before the Special Criminal Court is unlawful, outside the powers of the 1939 Offences Against the State Act and violates their constitutional and European Convention rights.

They further claimed the failure by the State to enact anything other than temporary measures in respect of procedures for the trial of persons before the Special Criminal Court also breaches their rights.

They claimed that they should not be tried under what amounts to temporary legislation introduced in 1972 during the Troubles in response to an emergency situation at the time but has since been extended to deal with serious organised crime.

The respondents denied their claims and said among other things, there was a failure by the men to adequately, or at all, to particularise the legal basis for the reliefs they sought.