A man has secured a further appeal against his conviction for acting as a getaway driver for the Hutch organised crime group on the day a Kinahan gang member was shot dead at Dublin’s Regency Hotel.
Jason Bonney (55), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin, was convicted in April 2023 alongside Paul Murphy (63), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin, by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of facilitating the Hutch criminal organisation in carrying out the murder of David Byrne in February 2016.
Bonney was jailed for 8½ years and Murphy for nine years.
Both men were tried from January to April 2023 alongside Gerard Hutch. The court acquitted Hutch of the murder of David Byrne.
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Last November, the Court of Appeal rejected the appeals by Bonney and Murphy against their convictions.
Lawyers for Bonney then sought a further appeal to the Supreme Court. The top court will only hear appeals if they meet certain criteria – specifically, that they raise a point of law of general public importance and an appeal is in the interests of justice.
In a recently published determination, a panel of three Supreme Court judges said Bonney’s case met those criteria. A hearing date will be fixed later.
The appeal centres on Bonney’s complaint about the trial court’s treatment of evidence which rebutted the alibi evidence of defence witnesses concerning the movements of a black BMW car on the day of the attack.
Bonney had denied he was the driver of the car on the day and said another man was driving it. Two defence witnesses testified the other man was driving the vehicle but the trial court permitted the State to call rebuttal evidence from another witness.
The trial court ultimately rejected the evidence of the two defence witnesses for reasons including its finding their evidence was not consistent with CCTV footage and it preferred the rebuttal evidence. On foot of that and other findings, it convicted Bonney.
The appeal will focus on issues including the meaning and effect of section 20 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, which defines alibi evidence.
Alibi evidence, the Supreme Court panel said, is of potential importance to many criminal trials. In this case, the Court of Appeal had accepted the Special Criminal Court was entitled to treat the relevant defence testimonies as alibi-type evidence on the facts before it.
The legal principles governing rebuttal evidence and the consequences of conceding or not raising a legal point during a trial, but later raising it on appeal, are other issues.
