LAST UPDATE | 18 Apr 2023
FORMER ASSISTANT GARDA Commissioner John O’Driscoll has said that “perhaps additional charges could have been pursued” against Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
His comments following the acquittal of Hutch (60) for the murder of David Byrne after he was shot at a crowded boxing weigh-in event at the Regency Hotel on 5 February 2016.
Hutch denied the murder of Byrne.
Though he has been found not guilty, his two co-accused, Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (50), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13, were found guilty of the charges they faced.
Murphy and Bonney had been charged with participating in or contributing to the murder of Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles.
Acquitting Hutch, Ms Justice Burns said the court finds him not guilty of the offence of murder.
In an interview with RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, O’Driscoll was asked whether this may have been the “wrong prosecution” and whether Hutch could have been charged with other offences.
“It’s the same State Prosecution Service that has guided us through so many successful convictions,” O’Driscoll said.
“But I was involved in providing evidence in the Veronica Guerin-related trials and that was the first time we saw the Witness Protection Programme being utilised and there was one particular witness, Charles Bowden, who was a criminal and convicted but yet his evidence was utilised,” he said.
“The difference being though that there would have been an expectation, as in the case of Bowden, that when you go into the witness box that you are telling the truth, that was not the case with the witness in this case,” he added.
O’Driscoll went on to say that “perhaps additional charges could have been pursued, but obviously, there was such an amount of evidence that the State believed linked Gerry Hutch to participation in the murder, that they pursued the most serious of the criminal offences in respect of which he was suspect”.
“On so many occasions in the past years since the Regency, the manner in which the Prosecution has operated has resulted in successful conclusion,” he said.
The judges found that sections of audio from a listening device inside a vehicle as Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall allegedly travelled to Northern Ireland did not give rise to inference that Hutch was present at the Regency at the time of the shooting.
The court found that the recordings do not contain an admission that Hutch was present at the Regency, adding that in reality the recording was an interaction between criminals who are not honest with each other.
The court said that the recordings could give inference to the idea that he organised the shooting but that this question wasn’t the case that was being tried.
Dowdall, who gave a statement to gardaí 10 days before he was to stand trial for murder, is serving a four-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of facilitating the murder of Byrne through the booking of a hotel room used by one of the hit team.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald issued a statement after the Regency verdict to say Dowdall “should never have been a member of Sinn Féin” given what he “would become involved in”.
He had been a councillor on Dublin City Council in 2014, before leaving a short time later.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said today that he believes the result of the trial shows that ‘the Special Criminal Court is a place that people get a fair trial’.
Responding to a question in the Dáil, Varadkar said: “We’ve had no murder in relation to criminal gang feud in Ireland in five years now. Please God that will continue.”
“I think the fact that there was one acquittal, even though it was not the outcome that the state desired, does confirm that the Special Criminal Court is a place that people get a fair trial, and [where] the beyond reasonable doubt principle applies.”
He added: “I do want to call on Sinn Féin, to call on the leaders of Sinn Fein in particular, to affirm that they will vote for the renewal of the Special Criminal Court in June – not an abstention, not not turning up – that you will vote for the retention of the Special Criminal Court.”
Sinn Féin has historically opposed the existence of the Special Criminal Court, but for the past two years have abstained from voting to renew the legislation underpinning it, rather than voting against it.
In a statement following the verdicts yesterday, Justice Minister Simon Harris said he notes the judgments of the Special Criminal Court and the independence of the courts in exercising their functions.
“The Minister also notes An Garda Síochána’s investigation into the murder and events at the Regency Hotel on 5 February 2016 remains live and is continuing,” he said.
“An Garda Síochána has made significant progress in tackling gangland crime in recent years, and the minister and Government will continue to support them in their efforts,” the statement said.
Today, Labour TD and spokesperson on justice Aodhán Ó Ríordáin told The Journal that the Special Criminal Court continues to “stand up”, with two successful convictions over the Regency murder.
“They brought forward three cases yesterday, two of them were successful, so on balance you would say it’s possibly a successful day,” Ó Ríordáin said.
“But clearly, a lot was placed on the evidence of one individual and that evidence didn’t stand up, wasn’t credible and on that basis, Gerard Hutch goes free.”
With reporting by Press Association
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