AN INDIVIDUAL WHO pursued two attackers involved in the fatal shooting of Gareth Hutch recognised one of the men as murder accused Jonathan Keogh, his trial has heard.

Mr Hutch (36), nephew of Gerry “the Monk” Hutch, was shot dead as he was getting into his car outside Avondale House flats on North Cumberland Street in Dublin on the morning of 24 May, 2016.

Mr Keogh and his sister as well as another man are on trial at the non-jury, three-judge court accused of murdering Mr Hutch.

Thomas Fox (31) with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1, Regina Keogh (41) from Avondale House, Cumberland Street North, Dublin 1 and Jonathan Keogh (32) of Gloucester Place, Dublin 1, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Hutch.

Mr Fox has also denied unlawfully possessing a Makarov 9mm handgun on 23 May, 2016 at the same place.

Detective Sergeant Enda O’Sullivan told prosecution counsel Paul Burns SC that gardaí received confidential information from a “named individual” who had pursued the two attackers and recognised one of them as Jonathan Keogh. As a result, Detective Sergeant O’Sullivan obtained a search warrant from Judge Bryan Smyth to search a house at Upper Sean McDermott Street, the home of Mr Keogh’s father.

The warrant was executed at 3.30pm on 24 May – the day of the shooting. Det Sgt O’Sullivan said that a Samsung Galaxy box and a Meteor SIM pack were found in a press in the kitchen of the house at Upper Sean McDermott Street and a second Meteor SIM pack was found inside the kitchen door over the microwave.

Defence barrister Sean Guerin SC, for Mr Keogh, argued that there was no evidential basis for the warrant to search Mr Keogh’s home but the three-judge court ruled the warrant was valid.

The court heard that Regina Keogh arrived at her father’s house when gardaí were there and said to Det Sgt O’Sullivan: “You will probably be searching my house next”. A search of Ms Keogh’s flat was conducted later that day but nothing was recovered.

CCTV

Det Sgt O’Sullivan said he was able to view further CCTV footage from Avondale House on 25 May where he observed two of the suspects going towards Mary McDonnell’s flat. He was later granted another warrant by
Judge Halpin to search Ms McDonnell’s flat.

The prosecution contend that the evidence of Ms McDonnell is”important” in this trial as the three accused used her home “as a base” to wait for Mr Hutch in the hours prior to the attack. Her kitchen window had a view into Mr Hutch’s flat.

Det Sgt O’Sullivan said he observed Ms McDonnell coming from the bin area when he arrived in the courtyard area of Avondale House on 25 May. He introduced himself and informed her that he had a warrant to search her flat.

The court heard that Ms McDonnell had been observed putting a black waste bag into one of the bins at Avondale House and that bag was recovered by Det Sgt O’Sullivan’s colleague and a number of exhibits were taken from it. A dressing gown with latex gloves in the pocket was seized at a later date, the court heard.

In his evidence, Garda Damien Murphy said he was part of a team of gardaí who obtained a search warrant for Ms McDonnell’s flat at Avondale House on 25 May. He said that as he came into the flats complex he saw Ms McDonnell putting a black bag into a bin.

He went over to the bin and retrieved this bag, which contained cigarette butts, as well as baby wipes and white plastic or surgical gloves. Gda Murphy said he also retrieved a pack of Huggies baby wipes from the kitchen of McDonnell’s flat.

Wiped

In his opening speech, Mr Burns said it was the State’s case that Ms McDonnell gave the two shooters wipes to clean down their weapons as well as plastic bags to put the guns into prior to the shooting.

Garda Murphy said that he returned to the flat on 28 May and retrieved a pink dressing gown from the main bedroom, as well as a number of latex gloves, which were inside it.

The court previously heard that it was in the course of gardai searching Ms McDonnell’s flat that she began to talk to gardaí by way of a voluntary conversation. She was later arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr Hutch and was ultimately charged with withholding information but that charge was subsequently withdrawn and on 8 May this year she was provided with a letter of immunity.

Mr Burns also said at the opening of the trial that the killing of Mr Hutch was not a spontaneous or spur of the moment act but a “brutal and callous murder”. “It was premeditated and a significant amount of planning had gone into it,” he said.

The prosecution say the three co-accused each had their own part to play in bringing about the death of Mr Hutch.

The trial continues on Monday before Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Michael Walsh.