LAST UPDATE | 25 Jan 2023

THE PROSECUTION CASE against Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch stands or falls on whether the Special Criminal Court can believe the evidence of the “proven and admitted liar and perjurer” Jonathan Dowdall, a barrister has told the three-judge, non-jury court.

Brendan Grehan SC, for Hutch, gave his closing speech this afternoon, telling the court that Dowdall is a “master manipulator” who decided he would give evidence against Gerard Hutch to get his own charge of murdering David Byrne dropped.

Counsel said the only evidence against Hutch, besides Dowdall’s “flawed” testimony, is an eight-hour audio recording of conversations between Hutch and Dowdall in which the prosecution alleges the accused made tacit admissions about his role in the shooting at the Regency Hotel in 2016.

Grehan added: “I challenge anyone to find any unambiguous admission to involvement in the Regency anywhere in the transcript.”

He said there were lots of references in those recordings that contradicted the prosecution case and while there were numerous references where a court could conclude that the “Hutch gang” were involved in the Regency attack, he said, “the Hutch gang cannot be equated with Gerard Hutch”.

Counsel said that the prosecution had suggested the tapes showed that on 7 March 2016 Hutch had control over the guns used in the Regency attack when he was allegedly bringing them north to gift them to the IRA.

But, Grehan said, this was more than one month after the Regency and, he added: “News flash, Mr Hutch isn’t charged with firearms offences, he is not charged with possession of firearms. The prosecution had a choice of what charges to bring and they chose what charges to bring.”

Much of what is in the recordings, Grehan said, could amount to Hutch getting involved after the Regency attack “to try to deal with the fallout”.

He said the recordings could suggest that Mr Hutch travelled north to speak to republicans “to try to find an alternative to more bloodshed”.

He said there was talk of “mediation and peace talks” and that Hutch was “somebody to stand and be guarantor for the extended Hutch family”.

Grehan also conceded that there were “arguably things said and discussed” in the recordings that “could suggest serious criminality on the part of Gerard Hutch”.

But he reminded the court that his client is not charged with conspiracy to commit crimes and the prosecution has “nailed its colours to the mast” by charging Hutch with murder.

Gerard Hutch (59), last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, denies the murder of Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on 5 February 2016.

Hutch’s two co-accused – Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (52), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 have pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles on 5 February 2016.

Dowdall evidence

Grehan said there were “two big lies” at the heart of Dowdall’s evidence – that Gerard Hutch had collected a key card for a room in the Regency that had been booked for the night of the attack and that Hutch had confessed to Dowdall that he was one of the “attack men” dressed as gardaí who entered the Regency and shot David Byrne.

He said that the prosecution had tried to play down the importance of Dowdall’s evidence but ultimately came back to it when they nominated Hutch as one of the gunmen during the prosecution’s closing speech.

“Therefore the prosecution case for murder stands or falls on whether the court can believe the evidence of Mr Dowdall in respect of that matter,” Grehan said.

Counsel pointed out that Dowdall confessed to waterboarding a man after gardaí discovered video evidence of the crime at Dowdall’s home.

He is also, counsel said, “a proven and admitted liar and perjurer”.

Grehan said the details of Dowdall’s lies had to be “dragged out of him like pulling teeth” over eight days in the witness box.

He also, Grehan said, admitted to lying to a previous hearing at the Special Criminal Court.

“He is a liar who has been caught out repeatedly lying and he carries on as if nothing has happened,” counsel said.

Grehan said the State’s witness had repeatedly lied to gardaí when they questioned him about the Regency and he lied to Joe Duffy on RTE’s Liveline when he said he had no involvement in criminality. He described Dowdall in the Liveline interview as “very good, very persuasive, a convincing, confident and practised liar”.

Counsel said it is Dowdall’s “instinct to lie” and he tells “big lies, little lies if he thinks he can get away with it” and had lied to this trial about his relationship with former senior republican Pearse McAuley, who was jailed for the manslaughter of Garda Jerry McCabe.

Dowdall said he had visited McAuley in prison two or three times but Grehan produced prison records showing Dowdall visited McAuley 14 times between February 2015 and January 2016.

Grehan said: “The prosecution are saying he is a witness of truth on whom you are to rely so it does matter if a witness sits there and lies to you and then you are asked to in effect excuse it. There were so many lies it would take days to enumerate them.”

He said Dowdall lied about the waterboarding until the video evidence proved it and added: “His first resort is to lie and he clearly believes he can lie his way out of any situation.”

Grehan said that during his cross-examination of Dowdall, the witness was evasive and at one point gave “whatever Mr Grehan” answers that counsel said were, the “type of responses you would get from a petulant teenager”.

All that, Grehan said, “must raise huge alarm bells in any court’s eyes when assessing the reliability of anything he has to say concerning Gerard Hutch”.

Grehan then took the court through parts of the audio recordings and pointed to an exchange in which Hutch told Dowdall that the six people involved in the Regency shooting did not know one another.

Counsel said it would be “extraordinary he would say such a thing if he had previously confessed to Mr Dowdall or if he was involved in what happened at the Regency”.

During his evidence, Dowdall told the court that Hutch was lying when he said the six did not know one another but Grehan pointed out that Dowdall claims that Hutch told him that he was one of the “attack men” who had actually shot David Byrne.

“Why would Mr Hutch lie to him in an unguarded situation if he had already confessed to him? It would make no sense,” counsel said.

Grehan said his client referenced the Regency several times in the audio recordings but did so in the context of media coverage.

He said Hutch can be heard referring to the people involved as “they” rather than “we”, language which counsel said contradicts the suggestion that Hutch had made a confession.

Grehan described the conversation as lengthy and unguarded with a man who has been put forward as a “confidant” and who says Hutch had previously admitted to him his part in the murder.

“Why would he be in the least bit guarded?” Grehan asked. “Why, if he was involved, would he not be using language to clearly indicate that? Why would the prosecution be grasping at tacit suggestions in relation to it?”

He said the audio was little more than a commentary on events already in the public domain.

“There are no iron clad admissions to say, there it is, there is the case against Mr Hutch,” counsel said.

Grehan finished his speech by saying the prosecution had tried to ride two horses – Dowdall’s testimony and the audio recordings – and marry them off by putting them together.

“What has happened is what always happens when you try to do that, they have fallen between both and have not made out a case that this court or any court could be satisfied of the guilt of Gerard Hutch on the charge they have chosen to bring against him.”

Comments are closed as legal proceedings are ongoing.