Conor Gallagher talks to Bernice Harrison about the not guilty verdict that was delivered today at the Special Criminal Court in the trial of Gerard Hutch. You can listen here or on your favourite podcast app.
The three judges in the non-jury Special Criminal Court have found that the evidence is not there to convict Gerard Hutch of the murder of David Byrne.
The key plank of the State’s case – the testimony of State witness, former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall – collapsed, with Ms Justice Tara Burns saying the court was not prepared to act on his statements alone and would require corroborative evidence.
And while there was such evidence for Gerard Hutch having control over weapons used in the Regency attack, and for the attack having been the work of the Hutch crime organisation, there was no evidence he was even at the hotel.
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Taped conversations between Hutch and Dowdall give rise, the court said, to the inference that he gave the go-ahead for the attack – but that was not the charge against him.
In the morning, the court convicted Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney on the lesser charges of facilitating the Regency attack by making vehicles available to a criminal organisation.
While Hutch strolled away from the court a free man, Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher says questions will now be asked about the role of the Gardaí in the preparation of the case; and why the DPP decided to go ahead with a prosecution for murder when the evidence put forward to support that charge could be so comprehensively dismissed.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.
