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Court shown alleged CCTV footage of Gerard Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall’s trips to North

Alleged journeys happened weeks after Kinahan cartel member David Byrne was murdered at Regency Hotel, Special Criminal Court hears

A prison van with a Garda escort leaves the Special Criminal Court on Tuesday where the trial of Gerry Hutch, for the murder of David Byrne, continues. Mr Hutch has pleaded not guilty. Photograph: Collins Courts

Alison O'Riordan
Tue Oct 25 2022 - 19:14

The Special Criminal Court has viewed CCTV footage of what the State says is Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch making two separate journeys to Northern Ireland with former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall just weeks after Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne was murdered at the Regency Hotel.

Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, spent the afternoon taking Garda Michelle Purcell through a CCTV montage using footage of what the State says is the accused Gerard Hutch and Dowdall from February 20th and March 7th, 2016.

At the outset of the CCTV footage from February 20th which was shown to the court, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC, for Gerard Hutch, told the three judges that he had no objection to the CCTV footage being played subject to its proof of origin and source.

The CCTV compilation began at Jonathan Dowdall’s house on the Navan Road at 7.19am on February 20th, 2016. The footage, Gda Purcell said, showed Dowdall getting into his dark-coloured Toyota Land Cruiser jeep outside his house and driving in the direction of Phibsborough and Killester.

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In his opening address to the three-judge court last week, Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, said Gerard Hutch had asked Dowdall to arrange a meeting with provisional republicans to mediate or resolve the Hutch-Kinahan feud due to the threats against the accused’s family and friends. Dowdall had driven Gerard Hutch to meet the republicans on February 20th, 2016, said Mr Gillane.

At 9.11am, the jeep can be seen pulling into a BP garage on the Newry Road in Co Armagh and the driver and passenger of the vehicle getting out. Gda Purcell said the jeep was filled up with fuel before the two men went inside the shop for about six minutes.

Mr Gillane said the prosecution case is that the driver of the car is Jonathan Dowdall and the second man is the accused Gerard Hutch.

At 9.12am, an internal camera shows Dowdall and Gerard Hutch, who is wearing jeans, a green jacket and a hat coming into the shop. Dowdall is engaged with someone at the checkout and pays for items whilst Gerard Hutch is at the coffee machine.

Minutes later at 9.29am, Dowdall gets out of the driver’s side of the vehicle and goes to the passenger side. Gerard Hutch gets into the driver’s side and the jeep then travels in the Armagh direction.

Separate footage from the evening of February 20th at 7.10pm shows Dowdall’s jeep entering the car park at The Quays Shopping Centre in Newry. The jeep pulls up outside the front doors of the shopping centre and a male can be coming out of the shopping centre to talk to the driver.

At 7.14pm, Gerard Hutch and a male are seen at the ticket machine in the car park. Gerard Hutch, who is wearing a jacket and a hat, can be seen with the ticket in his hand, the witness said. About a half-an-hour later at 7.47pm, Dowdall’s jeep can be seen coming southbound towards Dublin. Dowdall turns into his house on the Navan Road at 8.16pm that night.

Further CCTV footage from March 7th was shown to the court, where Jonathan Dowdall can be seen getting into his car outside his house on the Navan Road at 2pm.

The non-jury court also heard in the opening speech by Mr Gillane that Gerard Hutch and Dowdall drove north to another meeting in Strabane in Co Tyrone on March 7th 2016 and that their vehicle was the subject of surveillance. It was during this journey that Dowdall and Gerard Hutch’s conversation was recorded and “many topics were traversed” including events at the Regency, the existence of the feud with the Kinahan organised crime group, the personnel and “efforts to make peace or agree a ceasefire”, said Mr Gillane.

Gerard Hutch, said counsel, was captured on the recording saying: “It’s hard to get involved where the Kinahan’s are concerned, ‘cause if it doesn’t work, the messenger gets it”. Gerard Hutch was also recorded as saying that he “was not going to show a weak hand and go looking for peace”, the court heard. lt was also heard in the course of this conversation that “explicit references” were made to “three yokes” and giving them “as a present” to the republicans in the north, which Mr Gillane said referred to the assault rifles used in the Regency Hotel attack.

In the CCTV footage shown to the court today from the afternoon of March 7, Dowdall’s jeep is seen heading in the direction of Kealy’s of Cloghran on the Swords Road.

Dowdall’s jeep is next seen turning into Kealy’s car park at 2.23pm and a male in a seating area walks in the direction of the Landcruiser, which pulls up. At this point, Mr Gillane told the three judges that the prosecution case is that the accused Gerard Hutch is seen walking towards the Landcruiser jeep and gets into it.

Further CCTV footage showed the jeep at the Maldron Hotel in Belfast at 5.35pm that evening and a passenger getting out. Gda Purcell said Gerard Hutch goes to the counter, speaks to the receptionist and receives a wallet at 5.42pm. He pays for the parking ticket and goes out to the Landcruiser. The jeep then drives off.

One of the clips shows the jeep coming off the Swords’s Road into Kealy’s car park at 00.15 the following day. A BMW is still parked up and the Landcruiser pulls up beside it. Gerard Hutch, who is wearing a beanie hat, gets out of the vehicle and gets into the BMW. The BMW drives across the car park followed by the Landcruiser a minute later.

The jeep is next seen at Dowdall’s home at 00.29, where he does a U-turn and reverses back into his driveway.

Jonathan Dowdall (44) — a married father of four with an address at Navan Road, Cabra, Dublin 7 — was due to stand trial for Mr Byrne’s murder alongside Mr Hutch but pleaded guilty in advance of the trial to a lesser charge of facilitating the Hutch gang by making a hotel room available ahead of the murder.

Jonathan Dowdall has been jailed by the Special Criminal Court for four years for facilitating the Hutch gang in the notorious murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne.

The former Dublin councillor is currently being assessed for the Witness Protection Program after agreeing to testify against his friend and former co-accused Geard Hutch, who is charged with Mr Byrne’s murder.

Mr Byrne, from Crumlin, was shot dead at the hotel in Whitehall, Dublin 9 after five men, three disguised as armed gardaí in tactical clothing and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, stormed the building during the attack, which was hosting a boxing weigh-in at the time. The victim was shot by two of the tactical assailants and further rounds were delivered to his head and body.

Mr Byrne died after suffering catastrophic injuries from six gunshots fired from a high-velocity weapon to the head, face, stomach, hand and legs.

Gerard Hutch (59), last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, denies the murder of Mr Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.

In the opening speech, Mr Gillane said the court would hear that Gerard Hutch’s former co-accused and now State’s witness Jonathan Dowdall said Gerard Hutch had said that he [Gerry Hutch] had been one of the team that shot Mr Byrne at the Regency.

Mr Hutch’s two co-accused — Paul Murphy (59), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (50), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 have pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of David Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles on February 5, 2016.

The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Tara Burns, presiding, sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone.

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