How 'bombshell' supergrass claims & ironic twist led to Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch's freedom after huge trial | The Sun
JONATHAN Dowdall’s decision to become a supergrass in the trial of the century shocked the country – but it was also key to ensuring that Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch walked away from court a free man.
The Irish Sun’s hit podcast The Kinahans today dives into the Regency trial, which ended in April with The Monk cleared of the murder of David Byrne.
His co-accused Jason Bonney and Paul Murphy were jailed for a combined 17 years for facilitating the killing of Mr Byrne, a Kinahan gang member, in the notorious 2016 shooting.
In this week’s bonus episode – the ninth in the series – the Irish Sun’s Damien Lane gives listeners an in-depth analysis of the big moments that shook the Special Criminal Court, where the case was heard before presiding judge Tara Burns and two other judges.
Irish Sun reporter Michael Doyle, who reported on every aspect of the gangland trial, gives expert analysis on how former Sinn Fein councillor Dowdall’s evidence ultimately led to Gerry walking away from court a free man – with the Hutch patriarch famously walking out of the courthouse looking almost unrecognisable with his long beard.
Explaining how Dowdall’s decision to turn state witness shocked seasoned journalists who had followed the ongoing Kinahan-Hutch feud.
He said: “So it wasn’t until the case actually opens. Sean Gillane (prosecuting senior counsel) opened it to those three judges on October 18 that we heard for the first time what the case against Gerry Hutch was, because we’d never heard before what their evidence was.
BOMBSHELL EVIDENCE
“And that’s when it emerged that Jonathan Dowdall had made a statement saying that Gerry Hutch had met him in a park in Whitehall a few days after the Regency, and that he confessed to being one of the gunmen that day.
“This was bombshell evidence because in seven years of writing articles about the Regency . . . there’s never been any suggestion that Gerry Hutch was actually one of the gunmen who carried out the attack.
“It’s the first time we’ve heard this. And it was certainly it was certainly it took us all unaware because we weren’t expecting this at all.
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“But it just came from a claim from Jonathan Dowdall, which the Gardai had only learned about a week or two before the trial started.”
Dowdall had contacted the DPP via his own solicitor and told them he was willing to give evidence against Gerry Hutch.
He is now set to enter the witness protection programme once he finishes the sentence he’s currently serving for facilitating Mr Byrne’s murder.
But the podcast today unravels how the case against Hutch began to crumble when Dowdall took to the witness stand to give his evidence.
The former politician found himself caught up in a flurry of lies, while secretly-recorded footage of himself and Gerry on a 10-hour car journey also failed to deliver any evidence that incriminated the accused.
During this trip, the pair discussed the six-man team that had been responsible for the Regency attack.
Just Kevin ‘Flatcap’ Murray is identifiable of the group, with the court hearing Gerry tell Dowdall that no one knows who was involved: “Sure the f***ing six people don’t even know.”
The Irish Sun’s Michael Doyle explained: “Jonathan Dowdall would tell the trial that Gerry Hutch specifically told him that he was one of the gunmen who carried out the murder of David Byrne at the hotel and that there was no other evidence to support his claim whatsoever.
“There was no CCTV, there was no forensics, there was no there was there was nothing else.”
SUPERGRASS JUDGED
Dowdall's fumbling would prove important to the Special Criminal Court’s judges who later assessed the evidence and found Dowdall to be an unreliable witness.
The hearing of the case in the Special Criminal Court may therefore have been Gerry Hutch’s saving grace.
He may even owe his freedom to the fact that the case was heard there, despite his own efforts to have the hearing moved to a jury court instead.
Sunday Times’ Security and Crime correspondent John Mooney explained: “These acquittals are never down to one particular event. It’s a number of different factors come in.
“But the most important ingredient in all of that is the law and the way the case is presented and the arguments that are made.
“So when you think about these questions about the use of supergrass witnesses, etc., it’s the one court that is actually robust in its independence insofar that it doesn’t rely on a jury that is capable of hearing evidence from supergrass witnesses and discounting it.
“I’m not so sure a jury would actually do that.”
He added: “I think the judges are correct to discount what this individual said. I think they completely, correctly assessed his credibility as a witness and they called it right in the end.
“And I always think it’s very ironic that Gerry Hutch had went to the Supreme Court trying to stop the Special Criminal Court from hearing his trial on the basis that he wouldn’t get justice there, when a point of fact, it was probably the one place in this country that he was certainly going to get a fair trial.
“And that in some ways is a good thing because it shows that the system works. And we don’t have a tradition in this country of unsafe convictions.”
So after a 52 day trial, 140 witnesses, 10 hours of audio tape, and many surprises in between Gerry walked free.
Next week, the podcast will examine what’s next for the Hutch gang and their enemies in the Kinahan cartel, led by Daniel Kinahan.
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The Kinahans – produced by Urban Media's Ian Doyle – is currently one of Ireland’s top podcasts.
It is available on all popular podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify.
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