Dublin Hotel Murder Trial Told of Link Between Irish Republicans and Underworld Feud

As the trial of Gerry Hutch gets under way armed officers patrol outside the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on Oct. 3, 2022. (PA).

Alleged Irish gangland boss Gerry Hutch has gone on trial, accused of ordering a murderous attack on a boxing press conference at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.

David Byrne, 33, was shot dead when six gunmen, dressed as police officers and armed with AK-47 assault rifles, attacked associates of Hutch’s alleged arch-rival Daniel Kinahan at a weigh-in for a WBO European title fight between Kinahan’s fighter, Jamie Kavanagh, and Antonio Joao Bento.

Several fighters on the bill were managed by MGM, a company which had links with Kinahan, who had flown in from Spain for the fight, and is believed to have been the target but managed to escape.

Opening the case for the prosecution in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court, Sean Gillane said: “It’s the prosecution case that this deliberate killing was carried out without restraint by a group of people, of which Hutch was one. And, just as the textbook says, there can be no fences without thieves. A killing like this cannot be carried out without planning and assistance.”

Hutch—who has been known as “The Monk” since murdered journalist Veronica Guerin gave him the moniker in the 1990s—was arrested in Spain in August 2021 and extradited to Ireland.

On Tuesday Hutch, 59, pleaded not guilty to murder as Byrne’s mother, Sadie, and other relatives sat in the court.

David Byrne's mother Sadie leaving Jonathan Dowdall's sentencing hearing at the Special Criminal Court, Dublin, on Oct. 10, 2022. PA

Gillane said a key witness would be Jonathan Dowdall, 44, a former Sinn Fein councillor, who has pleaded guilty to facilitating the murder of Byrne and was jailed for four years on Monday.

The prosecutor said the trial will hear evidence that Dowdall met Hutch at a park in the Dublin suburb of Whitehall after the murder.

Hutch ‘Edgy’ After Newspaper Published Photo of Gunman

Gillane said Hutch was “edgy and worked up” because the Sunday World newspaper had published a photograph of one of the gunmen, dressed in a fake Garda Siochana uniform, and another pretending to be a woman, at the Regency Hotel.

The prosecutor said Hutch made it clear during that conversation his gang “had carried out a murder and that he had been one of the team that shot David Byrne in the Regency.”

Hutch allegedly asked Dowdall to arrange a meeting with several Irish republicans because the Regency Hotel shooting had led to an escalation of the feud with the Kinahans and several of his relatives faced death threats.

Gillane said Dowdall then drove Hutch to Strabane in Northern Ireland, where they met senior republicans.

Gillane said Hutch told Dowdall he could not show “a weak hand in looking for peace” and said, of the idea of peace negotiations with the Kinahan gang: “It is very hard to get involved where the Kinahans are concerned because the messenger gets it.”

The prosecutor said Hutch also referred to giving “three yokes” to the republicans as a gift and he said the inference was that it was a reference to the three guns used in the Regency shooting.

In the wake of the Regency Hotel shooting at least 16 people were killed in tit-for-tat attacks blamed on the so-called Hutch–Kinahan feud.

The Regency Hotel attack was allegedly carried out in revenge by Gerry Hutch after his nephew Gary was shot dead in Spain in September 2015.

The court was told that several republicans were allegedly involved in the feud on Hutch’s side, including former IRA man Kevin “Flat Cap” Murray, who is believed to have been one of Byrne’s killers. He died of motor neurone disease in 2017.

Witness Describes ‘Mayhem’ When Gunmen Walked In

The first witness to give evidence at the trial was Mel Christie, the former president of the Boxing Union of Ireland, who said there were about 200 people, including several children, in the room at the Regency where the weigh-in was taking place when the two gunmen walked in.

Christie said: “There was mayhem. Some of them were diving to the floor, others were retreating backward out of the path of the two individuals who had come into the room, each holding a gun.”

He said they fired a number of shots and he saw one of the boxers fleeing the room wearing only his Donald Duck underpants.

Christie said he saw a number of injured people and he saw a parent outside the room trying to console a child aged about 4.

There is no jury in the trial, which is expected to last several months, and all three judges—Tara Burns, Sarah Berkeley, and Grainne Malone—are women.

Hutch’s co-defendants Paul Murphy, 59, and Jason Bonney, 50, have also pleaded not guilty to providing motor vehicles to a criminal organisation with knowledge or having been reckless to whether those actions could facilitate a serious offence by the organisation.

Jonathan Dowdall’s 65-year-old father, Patrick, has admitted assisting a criminal gang to commit murder and been jailed for two years.

Hutch’s nephew Patrick Hutch, 24, was originally charged with Byrne’s murder but his trial collapsed in 2019 after the senior investigating officer in the case, Detective Superintendent Colm Fox, committed suicide by gun at a Dublin police station.

PA Media contributed to this report.