Hutch trial: Defence bugging claim ‘a cloud’

Prosecution said once a surveillance device is placed and retrieved lawfully on a car within this jurisdiction, "then it does not matter a damn where the vehicle was in the meantime"

Gerry Hutch (pictured) denies the murder of Mr Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016. File picture: Gareth Chaney Collins

Conversations between Regency Hotel murder accused Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch and ex-Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall that were captured by a garda bugging device are admissible in evidence and any issue about where the device travelled to is "a cloud" which the defence has placed over the case, a prosecution barrister has told the Special Criminal Court.

Prosecution counsel agreed with the presiding judge it was the State's case that, once a surveillance device is placed and retrieved lawfully on a car within this jurisdiction, "then it does not matter a damn where the vehicle was in the meantime".