Just minutes after being acquitted of the 2016 Regency Hotel murder of David Byrne, Gerard Hutch left the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin through the front door on Monday. He emerged into a stunning spring afternoon having been in custody since August 2021 — first in Spain and then Ireland after being extradited.
Had the verdict gone the other way — though it didn’t even come close — the 60-year-old Dubliner faced a life sentence. He would have spent the next 20-25 years in prison and may have died behind bars.
As Hutch came down the steps of the courthouse he was pursued by perhaps the biggest scrum of media personnel assembled outside the building since it opened just over 13 years ago. Photographers and television crews all wanted to capture images of the man they call the Monk while reporters laid down a barrage of questions.
How did it feel to be free? Had he anything to say to his one-time friend, former Sinn Féin cllr Jonathan Dowdall, who had given evidence against him? What was his response to the Special Criminal Court’s finding that his family was responsible for the Regency Hotel attack? What were his plans now?
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Looking somewhat stunned and unkempt, the 60-year-old maintained a monastic-like silence as he walked briskly up Infirmary Road. Eventually, members of his legal team found a passing taxi, which they flagged down, and their erstwhile client was whisked away.
And that was it. The few minutes of mayhem were over and stunned passersby who had paused to survey the scene began moving off, many of them shaking their heads in disbelief.
Earlier in the court, Hutch was increasingly uneasy in his seat as the judgment was delivered. But with every passing word, it was clear this was going his way.
When the verdict was finally confirmed by Ms Justice Tara Burns, sitting with judges Sarah Berkeley and Gráinne Malone, Hutch displayed no obvious emotional response. He was then surrounded by his lawyers while still seated in the dock alongside his co-accused Paul Murphy (61) of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin, and Jason Bonney (50) of Drumnigh Woods, Portmarnock, Dublin. Both of those men were found guilty of aiding the killers, by acting as getaway drivers on the day, and will be sentenced at a later date.
However, Hutch was taken back down to the bowels of the building — a free man and no longer in custody — for some formalities before he could leave. The courtroom was packed, as it was for the duration of the trial.
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On Monday, such was the interest in the case, the Irish Courts Service organised for the adjacent courtroom to be used as an overflow court with proceedings broadcast live there. In the morning, curious members of the public lined up outside. In the afternoon session, after news of the hearing was reported across the media, the queues were even bigger.
What they witnessed was, not only the acquittal of Gerard Hutch but also the demolition by the court of the State’s case against the father of five. The most bruising criticism was reserved for the key witness, Dowdall, and the decision by the State to base its case on him.
The court concluded he was not only a proven liar, but a man who continued with his lies even while he gave evidence against Hutch during the trial. “The case against Gerard Hutch is not one of common design but rather participation [in the murder], although one wonders what the case was intended to be before the introduction of Jonathan Dowdall as a prosecution witness,” it said.
Those words cannot be seen as anything other castigation of Dowdall and the decision, late in the day, to produce a convicted torturer — who used waterboarding on one victim — and murder conspirator as the main pillar of the prosecution.
