Court shown weapons allegedly used in Regency attack 

A prison van with a Garda escort leaves the Special Criminal Court on Monday where the trial of Gerry Hutch, accused of the murder of David Byrne, continues. Mr Hutch has pleaded not guilty. Picture: Collins Courts

Detective Sergeant David O’Leary took each of the rifles into his hand while sitting on the stand.

As he was handed them, he checked each of them over before confirming “firearm is safe, judges”.

He took a further look over each of them in turn, before handing them back over and continuing his evidence.

The court has already seen CCTV of events as they unfolded. It has heard from witnesses present on the day. It has seen plenty of other footage of events prior to the shooting, and shortly after.

In the trial of Gerry Hutch, accused of the murder of David Byrne, who was shot dead in the Regency Hotel in February 2016, the court was today shown what the prosecution says were guns used in that attack.

The court heard that they were three AK-47-style weapons, copies of the Kalashnikov weapon first used by the Soviet military in the late 1940s.

Detective Sergeant O’Leary described one as being of Chinese make, the other of Romanian make, and the last of Yugoslavian origin. They were all relatively light, with the court hearing the Chinese variant weighed around 3.5kg.

Each could carry a magazine of 30 bullets. The ammunition recovered from the Regency itself had various origins, but once it was of the right make, different ammunition could be used interchangeably together, the court heard.

Under cross-examination, he said there were “tens of millions” of such weapons in existence across the world. In Ireland, he said that the Yugoslavian weapon would have been “quite prolific as a remnant from the Balkan war”, and the Romanian one would have been seen “quite frequently in this jurisdiction”.

“I’ve come across all three previously,” Detective Sergeant O’Leary said of the three different kinds of weapon.

These specific ones were recovered a month after the Regency shooting, when gardaí staged “an intervention”, as the court has heard, just outside Slane, Co Meath. 

A 09-reg Vauxhall Insignia car was stopped, and three assault rifles were found, along with ammunition, in the boot of the car.

The man driving the car, Shane Rowan, with an address in Killygordan in Donegal, was charged for possession of these items and was subsequently jailed. He was also sentenced to serve a concurrent sentence for IRA membership.

Detective Sergeant O’Leary testified that he examined both the guns and the cartridges and bullets recovered from the Regency.

Through microscopic examination and comparison with the guns, he said he was able to determine that seven cartridge casings recovered at the Regency were all fired from the same firearm. This firearm was the Romanian AK-47 copy, he said.

Regarding a further four cartridge cases that were recovered, Detective Sergeant O’Leary said he was satisfied they came from the Yugoslavian firearm.

One more discharged cartridge that was recovered was compared against the Chinese-made rifle.

“I’m satisfied it was discharged from that firearm,” the ballistics expert said.

The court also heard that discharged bullets and fragments of bullets recovered from the Regency were examined. This includes bullets recovered from the autopsy of Mr Byrne.

Detective Sergeant O’Leary said these bullets were “fragmented or damaged”, and as a result had a “lack of unique reproducible identifying marks” to compare them with the three guns.

Again, this evidence came as the prosecution continues to build its case surrounding events in the Regency Hotel on the afternoon of February 5, 2016.

And so it was that after the evidence from Garda Sergeant David O’Leary, the court again turned to CCTV of events prior to the Regency shooting.

It was this that became the subject of a disagreement between prosecutor Sean Gillane SC and Bernard Condon SC, who is defending Paul Murphy in this trial.

Mr Murphy, along with co-accused Jason Bonney, has pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of David Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles on February 5, 2016.

“Where there appears to be a dispute between us, is the extent to which Garda [Michelle] Purcell can describe what is being shown to the court,” said Mr Gillane. He said that Gda Purcell was entitled to bring the court’s attention to aspects of vehicles which form part of the prosecution’s case.

He said that part of what was being shown is a man the prosecution says is Mr Murphy.

Mr Condon said that he had noticed “somewhat casual remarks” from Gda Purcell, who has been giving evidence across a number of days on CCTV footage which allegedly shows vehicles involved in this case. He said he had no difficulty if the CCTV footage is guided “in a neutral way”.

Today, the court saw footage of a “light-coloured taxi” as referred to by Gda Purcell. Such a light-coloured taxi was pointed out in numerous sections of CCTV shown to the court, including stopping at a petrol station on the Howth Rd in Dublin at around 1.14pm.

A taxi is later seen driving onto Casino Park near St Vincent’s GAA club at around 2.02pm, along with a number of other vehicles. A number of vehicles were also shown leaving the same area at 2.42pm, driving back onto the Malahide Rd.

And again, like he had done last week, Gerry Hutch was often taking notes and reading over a notebook as evidence was being delivered.

The case continues.