A “curious development’ in the trial of Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch, who denies murdering Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne at the Regency Hotel, has seen a document disclosed to the defence, the Special Criminal Court heard on Wednesday morning.
When the non-jury court returned today following the Christmas break Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, apologised to the three judges for what he described as “something of a false start this morning”.
Mr Gillane informed the court that “a curious development” had arisen which resulted in the “generation of a document” that had been disclosed to the defence and primarily concerned Mr Hutch. “That isn’t the cause of the delay but the matter has to be looked into,” he added.
The prosecuting counsel went on to say that the other issue which had caused the delay was that a garda witness was not available this morning. He asked the court to hear a short amount of evidence this morning and to reconvene on Thursday.
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The barrister said a “narrow” legal issue had arisen with CCTV footage in the case and he was confident that this evidence would be completed by lunchtime tomorrow. “We won’t lose time,” said Mr Gillane.
Addressing Mr Gillane, presiding judge Ms Justice Tara Burns said she now heard that the trial would conclude in two weeks. Mr Gillane said he hoped so but he did not know where “the development” would lead.
Mr Hutch’s defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC told the court that he was in “broad agreement” with this estimate “subject to matters falling out of the sky”.
Mr Grehan said the defence had not dealt with exhibits when the court finished up for Christmas on December 21 and he would be asking the court to make several items formal exhibits. “I will have some limited cross-examination to elicit various matters which Jonathan Dowdall said about two specific issues. We will be endeavouring to deal with those in the most compact manner possible,” he said.
Ex-Sinn Féin councillor Dowdall, a former co-accused of Mr Hutch who has turned State’s witness and who has pleaded guilty to facilitating Mr Byrne’s murder, was on the stand for eight days in December and cross-examined for seven of those by Mr Hutch’s defence counsel Mr Grehan before the Christmas break.
Mr Grehan said today that he was hoping the defence may be able to deal with some of these matters by way of “a section 22″ rather than having to call a range of gardaí to prove the interviews and memorandums taken from Dowdall, when he was arrested for the murder of Mr Byrne in May 2016.
The State proceeded to call three very brief garda witnesses today, two of whom gave evidence in relation to the harvesting of CCTV footage from two Dublin city locations.
Following this, Mr Gillane informed the court that no more witnesses were available today.
The trial will continue tomorrow before Ms Justice Burns sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone.
Gerard Hutch (59), last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, denies the murder of Mr Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on February 5th, 2016.
Mr Hutch’s two co-accused – Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (50), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 have pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of David Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles on February 5th, 2016.
Dowdall (44) – a married father of four with an address at Navan Road, Cabra, Dublin 7 – was due to stand trial for Mr Byrne’s murder alongside Gerard Hutch but pleaded guilty in advance of the trial to a lesser charge of facilitating the Hutch gang by making a hotel room available for use by the perpetrators the night before the attack.
Dowdall – who previously served as an elected Sinn Féin councillor in the north inner city ward in May 2014 and resigned less than one year later – was jailed by the Special Criminal Court for four years for the facilitation offence.
Following Dowdall’s sentence on October 3th, a nolle prosequi – a decision not to proceed – was entered on the murder charge against the former Dublin city councillor. Dowdall’s father Patrick Dowdall (65) was jailed for two years before the Regency trial started after he also admitted his part in booking the hotel room for the raiders.