LAST UPDATE | 8 May 2023

GERARD ‘THE MONK’ Hutch, who was acquitted last month by the Special Criminal Court of the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne at the Regency Hotel and walked from court a free man, is seeking his legal costs from the State.

The State is to oppose the application, which will be heard on Friday when two long-time friends of the Hutch family convicted of acting as getaway drivers during the notorious hotel attack in 2016 will be sentenced.

Sean Gillane SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), said today that submissions from the defence regarding Hutch’s costs application have been served on the State, that the application will be opposed and it will take no more than an hour on Friday.

Defence barrister Brendan Grehan SC, for Hutch, said he understood this was “fairly well trodden territory”.

Last month following the 52-day trial at the Special Criminal Court, taxi driver Paul Murphy and builder Jason Bonney were found guilty at the Special Criminal Court of acting as getaway drivers.

The court heard today that Bonney has no previous convictions and once ran a building company employing 10 people.

Defence counsel Bernard Condon SC, for Paul Murphy, submitted to the three-judge court during today’s sentence hearing that his client ought to to be considered to be at the lowest level of ladder of responsibility.

“Many people were involved at all sorts of levels, there was no evidence of any level of organisation whatsoever in relation to Mr Murphy,” he said.

Condon added: “The evidence is of a man driving around in his own taxi with his own taxi plate and going into various premises he must have known were covered by CCTV”.

The non-jury court heard today that Murphy has 67 previous convictions which include public order offences, road traffic offences, larceny and criminal damage. They have all been dealt with at District Court level. Murphy, the court heard, had changed his name by deed poll from Christopher Ryan to Paul Murphy in 1987.

Evidence was given that Bonney has no previous convictions, had never previously been arrested for criminal offences and had not been “on garda radar” prior to this offence.

Ms Justice Tara Burns, presiding in the three-judge, non-jury court, heard pleas by lawyers for the two convicted men and said the court will pass sentence on Friday at 10am.

Judgement

Delivering judgement at the non-jury court on 17 April, Ms Justice Burns sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone agreed with the State’s case that Murphy’s silver Toyota Avensis taxi and Bonney’s black BMW X5 jeep were part of a convoy of six cars. The cars parked up at St Vincent’s GAA club grounds in Marino in north Dublin before the Regency shooting on the afternoon of 5 February 2016 and had then each transported one of the hit men from St Vincent’s GAA car park.

It was the prosecution’s case that an integral part of the operation which led to Byrne’s death was the means by which the tactical team escaped, which was central to the case of Bonney and Murphy.

Ms Justice Burns said the court was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the existence of the Hutch Criminal Organisation and that the defendants Murphy and Bonney knew of its existence when they provided access to their individual cars at St Vincent’s GAA club intending to facilitate the commission of a serious offence by the Hutches.

She also said that the court was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the Regency attack, during which David Byrne was shot dead, was orchestrated by the Hutch criminal organisation.

In acquitting Hutch, the Special Criminal Court found that it could not rely on the unsupported evidence of the former Sinn Féin councillor and convicted torturer Jonathan Dowdall. It also found that surveillance audio recordings of a conversation between Dowdall and Hutch did not corroborate Dowdall’s claim that Hutch had confessed to being one of the hitmen at the Regency Hotel where Byrne was shot dead.

The three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court heard that the shooting took place during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel. A man dressed as a woman and another man wearing a flat cap, who were armed with handguns, stormed the hotel followed by three people dressed in tactical-style garda uniforms carrying assault rifles.

Byrne (33), from Crumlin, was shot dead at the hotel in Whitehall, Dublin 9 after five men raided the building, which was hosting a boxing weigh-in at the time. The victim was shot by two of the tactical assailants and further rounds were delivered to his head and body.

Byrne died after suffering catastrophic injuries from six gunshots fired from a high-velocity weapon to the head, face, stomach, hand and legs.

Last month, Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (52), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 were each found guilty of the charge of participating in or contributing to the murder of Byrne (33) by providing access to motor vehicles on 5 February 2016.

Gerard Hutch (60), of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, had denied the murder of David Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9 on 5 February 2016.

Today’s hearing

Under cross-examination today, Garda Deirdre Quinn from Ballymun Garda Station agreed with Bernard Condon SC, for Murphy, that some of his client’s offences go back 50 years and he is at the older end of the scale of people that come before the court. The garda also agreed with the barrister that Murphy had a long history in the taxi business and that he has a family and children.

Detective Sergeant Stephen O’Keeffe agreed with John Fitzgerald SC, for Bonney, that his client was always polite and gardaí had “absolutely zero difficulty” with him. The detective said Bonney’s background was in building and that he was involved in boxing on a voluntary basis. The court heard Bonney had never been arrested before and was only ever in custody on remand in this case.

In his submissions, defence counsel Fitzgerald said Bonney had been married for 32 years and had two children, who had both gone through third level education.

Bonney, he said, had left school at 14 years old, worked as an apprentice plasterer and later went back to attend a construction course in Bolton Street for three years. He set up his own building company at 23 years old and had employed ten people during “the boom years” but suffered financially from 2008 onwards. “He was never a burden on the State and always paid his own way,” said counsel.

Bonney then went to the UK where he worked in construction on a slightly smaller scale until 2014. Counsel said his client was a hard worker and had always paid his taxes and his employees.

Fitzgerald said matters were progressing well again until 2014 when Bonney had a heart attack in his early 40s and was unable to work for 18 months.

“Rather than be a burden to others, he lived off his rental income through his building work but eventually had to go back to work,” he said.

Bonney, he said, has always been interested in boxing and boxed from the age of 10. He won three national titles, had been involved with Trinity Boys Boxing Club and “represented his country abroad,” said Fitzgerald. The defendant had also acted as a club coach and president of a boxing club on a voluntary basis.

“A number of people have benefited from his industry and commitment to his community,” he added.

Counsel handed into the court a number of testimonials, which included one from a man who had been fostered as a 12-year-old child by the Bonney family and said he became part “of a loving nuclear environment”.

In his letter the now man said he wasn’t treated any differently to the other children in the family, that he had been taken to Bonney’s boxing club and that the defendant was always there for him if he needed to talk to anyone about his past. The man described Bonney as having a huge heart and said that he wouldn’t be the person he is today without him.

Another testimonial described Bonney as very helpful, working hard for his family and a valuable member of the community.

Bonney’s brother wrote a letter saying that despite the obvious split in the family the men had remained close and described the defendant as honest, hardworking and a good person.

Fitzgerald submitted that the letters speak to the defendant’s good character in a very positive sense, that he is a community man who is a hard worker and that he had never been before the courts before. He asked the judges to consider the effect of the sentence on his immediate family and that this was an “isolated incident” in the context of his client’s background.

Condon, for Murphy, said that the prosecution had decided not to rehearse the evidence which left the court “with something of a task”.

Condon asked the court to take into account that his client had been a taxi man his entire life and had come across family members of “those heavily involved with this gang”. He said Murphy had not disguised himself and no items were removed from his taxi.

In mitigation, Condon said there was no evidence that Murphy foresaw a murder happening that day, that he was at the lower end of the scale and had contact with other people who were undoubtedly higher up the chain. He submitted that the headline sentence of eight years for a similar case was “a bit high”.

Murphy, he said, had grown up in Sean McDermott Street until he was 12 years of age and was then reared by his grandmother. He was married for 26 years and had four children together before going on to have a fifth child with another partner.

Condon said Murphy had only finished primary school education and since then worked as a private in the army for a year before opening a newsagents and later applying for a taxi licence in 1994.

Counsel asked the court to consider the manner in which Murphy ran his case and that there “wasn’t evidence called of any particular type”. He said his client suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.

Condon asked the judges to structure the sentence as leniently as possible and to consider in mitigation Murphy’s age and that he was definitely “not at the top end of this”.

Ms Justice Burns said she would have regard to the letters handed into court and remanded both men in custody until Friday, when they will be sentenced.