A mother-of-two has told a murder trial that two men "barged into" her apartment and used it as a lookout as they planned the murder of a nephew of Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch.
Mary McDonnell previously gave evidence in 2018 in the trial of Jonathan Keogh, his sister Regina Keogh and Thomas Fox who were all convicted of murdering Gareth Hutch. Ms McDonnell has been called as a witness in the trial of Thomas McConnell, who is the fourth person to go on trial accused of the murder before the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court.
Before Ms McDonnell gave her evidence, Detective Sergeant Peter Woods told the trial that he was involved in taking statements from Ms McDonnell after she had been arrested following the murder. He denied a suggestion by defence counsel Patrick McGrath SC that he had used "unethical" means to put pressure on Ms McDonnell to make a statement.
The trial has previously heard that Ms McDonnell initially told gardaí things that incriminated Fox and Jonathan and Regina Keogh but having received legal advice stopped talking to gardaí. She later agreed to make a full statement and give evidence at trial.
'Unsafe'
Mr McGrath said that gardaí had "kept putting into her mind the idea that she was unsafe". Sgt Woods replied: "She was unsafe, absolutely she was unsafe." He said that people had been shot in the inner city just because they knew the Hutch family and Ms McDonnell was at that time "in the middle of where the problems were."
He added: "I wasn't putting her into fear, I was trying to get her to realise the situation she was in, she was in grave danger."
Sgt Woods also denied deliberately trying to give Ms McDonnell the impression that her protection was dependent on her cooperating with gardaí.
Mr McConnell (37) of Sillogue Gardens, Ballymun, Dublin 11 has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gareth Hutch (36) on May 24th, 2016, at Avondale House, North Cumberland Street, Dublin 1. Gareth Hutch was a nephew of infamous criminal Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch.
In November 2018 the Special Criminal Court found Regina Keogh of Cumberland St North, Dublin 1, Jonathan Keogh with an address at Gloucester Place, Dublin 1 and Thomas Fox (31) with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1 guilty of the murder of Mr Hutch.
At the opening of the trial, Fiona Murphy SC said the prosecution case is that Jonathan Keogh was with Mr McConnell in Ms McDonnell's apartment on the morning of the murder. She said that Mr McConnell watched Gareth Hutch's apartment from a window in Ms McDonnell's home and when Mr Hutch emerged, the accused signalled to Keogh by saying "we're on". Ms Murphy said Mr McConnell and Keogh followed Gareth Hutch and shot him multiple times, killing him just a short distance from his front door.
Argument in car park
Giving her evidence on Tuesday, Ms McDonnell said that on the day before the murder she witnessed an argument between Jonathan Keogh and Gareth Hutch in the car park outside her home. She heard Johnny Keogh warn Mr Hutch that if anything happened to his sister Regina or his family he would be "coming after you".
Later that evening Jonathan Keogh offered Ms McDonnell "five thousand pounds" to let him use her flat for a few hours. She said she refused but Regina Keogh "kept saying, you have to do it" and they wouldn't accept her answer.
That night at about 10.45pm Jonathan Keogh and a man she knows only as "Tossie" followed Ms McDonnell into her apartment. While there they produced two handguns from their trousers and used wet wipes to clean them, she said. They then put the guns into an Aldi bag and left.
Ms McDonnell said she rang Regina and said she had told her she "didn't want anything in my house". Regina ignored her, she said, and arrived at her apartment a few minutes later with rubber gloves which were left on the counter in Ms McDonnell's kitchen.
'Barged in'
The following morning at about 7am there was a loud knock on the door. When Ms McDonnell answered it Keogh was with "some other fella and they just barged in". She didn't know the second man but described him as "blocky" and said he "looked like someone who went to the gym". He wore a hoodie with the hood pulled up but she could see a little bit of blonde hair. He had the laces of the hoodie criss-crossing his face so she could see only a bit of his face. Keogh and the second man put on the gloves that had been left by Regina the previous night.
Keogh told Ms McDonnell to sit down and not to open the curtains. Ms McDonnell said she was shaking. Keogh kept going in and out of Ms McDonnell's bedroom to make sure that a black car that was parked outside wasn't blocked in. The other man sat on her kitchen counter with one foot on the washing machine and stared out the window towards Gareth Hutch's apartment.
Keogh spoke to Tossie on the phone and she understood from their conversation that Tossie was parked in a white van on a nearby street but was getting anxious because people were looking into the van. Jonathan Keogh was sweating and kept telling Tossie, "we'll be up in ten minutes".
'Tins' of petrol
She also assumed from the conversation that Keogh had placed two "tins" of petrol in the van to burn it out later. Keogh asked the second man if it would take long to burn and the other man said "it won't take long if we leave the doors open".
After some time, the man watching Gareth Hutch's apartment said "we're on Johnny, we're on" and both men ran out the front door. Ms McDonnell immediately went to the toilet and when she came out her daughter told her that she had heard three bangs.
Ms McDonnell heard Regina screaming, "Johnny", and when she went outside and asked Regina what had happened, Regina told her that "Gar is after getting shot". When Ms McDonnell returned to her flat, one of her daughters told her, "Johnny Keogh done that, he shot Gar."
Gardaí arrived a short time later and told Ms McDonnell to leave her flat as it was a crime scene. She went to Regina's flat and told her that one of her daughters knows that Jonathan Keogh shot Mr Hutch. Ms McDonnell recalled Keogh saying "tell them to shut their mouth, not to say anything."
Ms McDonnell's evidence will continue on Wednesday before Mr Justice Alex Owens, Judge Elma Sheahan and Judge David McHugh.
