LAST UPDATE | 27 Apr 2023

A MAN HAS been arrested in connection with a probe into claims a GSOC investigator attended a party where Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch celebrated being cleared of a role in the Regency Hotel attack.

A statement from An Garda Síochána read:

“This morning 27 April 2023, Gardaí attached to the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) investigating certain matters referred to An Garda Síochána by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission have carried out a search at a domestic residence in Dublin 3.

“A male has been arrested on suspicion of an offence contrary to section 81, Garda Síochána Act 2005.

“The male, in his 60s, is being detained at a Garda Station in the East of the country under section 4 Criminal Justice Act 1984.”

Garda investigators established yesterday that a former GSOC officer had attended the party celebrating the release of Gerard Hutch.  

The senior investigator had gone to the party on the night Hutch was cleared by the Special Criminal Court of taking part in the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in 2016.

The gardaí began an investigation following a referral from GSOC and the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe. 

The GSOC officer in question resigned from his role after the claims initially emerged last weekend.

Minister for Justice Simon Harris said that today’s arrest showed that the matter was being investigated appropriately by Gardaí.

“I met the Garda Commissioner in recent days and I met the commissioners of GSOC also yesterday in relation to this ongoing Garda inquiry and the steps that have been taken to refer the matter from GSOC to the Gardaí.”

“I think what today shows, without commenting in any way on a live investigation, is the appropriateness of the decision to refer this matter from GSOC to the Gardaí.”

“I have said since first becoming aware of this, that it was important that if there’s any potential criminal wrongdoing that the only place for that to go in terms of an investigation was the Garda Siochána,” Harris stated.

“I think what we’re now seeing is the Gardaí taking it seriously and applying the appropriate level of priority to this matter.”