Verdicts to be delivered in Gareth Hutch murder case next week

Judges at the Special Criminal Court will continue delivering their judgment next week in the trial of three people accused of murdering Gareth Hutch.

Mr Hutch (36), nephew of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch was shot dead as he was getting into his car outside Avondale House flats on North Cumberland Street in Dublin on the morning of May 24th, 2016.

He died as a result of four gunshot injuries.

Presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Michael Walsh at the non-jury court, spent five hours reviewing the evidence against Jonathan Keogh on Friday.

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Mr Justice Hunt said at 4.20pm on Friday that there was still “almost 40 pages” remaining in Mr Keogh’s judgment but the verdicts against the other two co-accused would be considerably shorter.

With his voice audibly strained, the judge announced he was adjourning the verdicts until next Friday at 10.30am.

There was a heavy presence from the Garda Public Order Unit in a packed courtroom for the reading of the judgment.

Mr Justice Hunt said shortly before 11am that he would begin delivering the judgment in the case of Jonathan Keogh.

However, the judge indicated to the court before it broke for lunch that he might not have time to deliver the verdicts against all of the accused.

He had previously informed the non-jury court that the judgment would take between four and five hours to read out.

The prosecution contends that Mr Keogh (33) threatened to kill Mr Hutch the evening before the shooting, that Thomas Fox (31) and Regina Keogh (41) were instrumental in planning the murder, and Mr Keogh and another man, Mr AB, were the shooters.

Mr Fox with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1, Ms Keogh from Avondale House, Cumberland Street North, Dublin 1 and Mr Keogh of Gloucester Place, Dublin 1, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Hutch.

Mr Fox has also denied unlawfully possessing a Makarov 9mm handgun on May 23rd, 2016 at the same place.

At the opening of the trial, the prosecution told the court that the three co-accused each had their own part to play in bringing about the death of Mr Hutch.

Prosecution counsel Paul Burns SC said in his closing speech at the end of July that the three co-accused had put “considerable thought and preparation” into Mr Hutch’s “truly shocking” killing which was not a “spur of the moment” attack.

Mr Burns submitted that for whatever reason Jonathan Keogh and Regina Keogh believed that Gareth Hutch posed some sort of threat to their safety. The only way to remove that threat, he said, was to kill Mr Hutch.

The barrister said it was an unfortunate coincidence that Mr Fox and Mr Keogh “turned up” at Mary McDonnell’s flat on the evening before the killing to clean their guns and less than 12 hours later Mr Hutch was “gunned down” in the car park of the flats complex.

Mrs McDonnell (45) was initially arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr Hutch and later charged with withholding information. However, that charge was subsequently withdrawn and she has been given immunity from prosecution.