Staff member recounts the ‘smell of gunfire’ at Regency Hotel shooting

In the coming days, the court will switch to hearing about the tracker on Jonathan Dowdall's car before moving to the recordings of Mr Dowdall's and Mr Hutch's conversations on one of the days they were tacked. Picture: Collins Courts

Monday morning began with a win for the prosecution and ended with one of the three judges expressing a tongue-in-cheek hope that we’ve finally reached the end of CCTV evidence.

It also featured one witness giving evidence from his car, which the judge told the prosecution in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to see happen again.

What the Special Criminal Court heard today in the landmark gangland trial was a mishmash of different elements of the case — from Jonathan Dowdall’s father checking into the Regency Hotel the night before the shooting to the PSNI’s intelligence surrounding Mr Dowdall’s and Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s movements in the North.

The defence team for Jason Bonney and Paul Murphy had sought to have evidence of garda interviews against their clients ruled inadmissible. They stand accused of helping to facilitate the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel by making vehicles available to the gang that carried it out on the day.

On the first occasions, they were interviewed by gardaí, they were not cautioned. The garda who went to speak to them had been directed to interview them under caution. But he didn’t do so.

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Notwithstanding that point, Ms Justice Tara Burns said that the assertion that there was a lack of fairness afforded to Mr Bonney and Mr Murphy was not the case. 

She delivered the ruling that this evidence could be admitted, as could evidence around the search of Mr Murphy’s vehicle and Mr Bonney’s arrest which had been challenged by the defence.

Mr Hutch, meanwhile, had arrived in court with his notebook, wearing a navy suit jacket and his customary open-necked shirt.

Listening in with his headphones, he heard evidence from the bar manager at the Regency Hotel. Carl Wall told the court he was setting up the bar ahead of a Brendan Grace gig that was due to happen later that evening when he heard two loud bangs.

Today in court, listening in with his headphones, he heard evidence from the bar manager at the Regency Hotel. Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins

When he entered the room where the weigh-in was taking place, he described to the court “the smell of the gunfire” which he immediately noticed.

Much of the evidence also centred on Mr Dowdall, a former Sinn Féin councillor.

The court heard that on the very same evening that the gardaí stopped Shane Rowan in Slane and the AK-47-style guns used in the Regency were found in the boot of his car, gardaí executed a search warrant on Mr Dowdall’s Cabra home.

Defence counsel Brendan Grehan asked Inspector Patrick Boyce: “As I understand it, it was on the basis of your belief there were firearms and explosives on behalf of the IRA being stored at his work and home address?” 

Inspector Boyce agreed with Mr Grehan that this was the case.

Barely an hour after Mr Rowan’s arrest, gardaí began searching the home of Mr Dowdall. While they didn’t find guns or explosives during this search, they did find a USB key.

And on this USB was footage of Jonathan Dowdall and his father Patrick torturing a man named Alexander Hurley. The court heard that no complaint had been made about this incident to gardaí beforehand.

Inspector Boyce said the man was waterboarded and Mr Grehan referred to it as the kind of thing associated with “Guantanamo or something like that”. It remains unclear exactly when Mr Dowdall will give evidence before the court in this trial.

In the coming days, the court will switch to hearing about the tracker placed on Mr Dowdall’s car, which Mr Hutch’s defence team is set to fight on, before moving to the recordings of Mr Dowdall’s and Mr Hutch’s conversations on one of the days they were tracked.

And as for when the trial itself will be finished, this matter was also addressed by the legal teams today.

Prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane SC said the trial could finish by Christmas. Mr Grehan SC, for Mr Hutch, was less hopeful. 

“I share Mr Gillane’s optimism, but I don’t share his complete confidence,” he said.

The trial continues.