Two long-time friends of the Hutch family have been found guilty at the Special Criminal Court of acting as getaway drivers during the notorious Regency Hotel attack in 2016, during which Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne was murdered.
The non-jury court agreed with the State’s case that Paul Murphy’s Toyota Avensis taxi and Jason Bonney's black BMW X5 jeep were part of a convoy of six cars that parked up at St Vincent's GAA club grounds in Marino before the Regency shooting on the afternoon of February 5th, 2016. The prosecution had argued that the pair had then helped two of the raiders escape.
Delivering the court's judgment, Ms Justice Tara Burns said the court is satisfied of the existence of the Hutch Criminal Organisation and that the accused men Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney knew of its existence when they made their cars available to the crime group.
She also said that the court is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the Regency attack, during which David Byrne was shot dead, was orchestrated by the Hutch organisation.
While delivering the judgment in relation to Bonney, Ms Justice Burns said that the court had been "lied to in the most malevolent manner" when Jason Bonney's deceased father was "implicated" in the Regency attack. "That anyone thought this would be accepted by the Special Criminal Court is quite simply amazing," she said.
CCTV footage
She said she was satisfied that Bonney was the only person driving his BMW throughout that day and that he was the driver when one of the gunmen, Kevin Murray, got into the car at St Vincent's GAA carpark following the shooting. In relation to Murphy, she said that the Avensis seen on CCTV footage before and after the shooting belonged to Murphy and that he remained driving it for the afternoon.
Having convicted Bonney and Murphy, Ms Justice Burns will continue delivering her judgment in relation to Gerard Hutch after lunch.
Before beginning the judgment, Ms Justice Burns said that the court would have preferred to deliver the verdict at an earlier stage but the "huge pressure" on judicial resources meant that each of the three judges of the court had been engaged in other matters. She said they had been working on their verdicts since the court rose on January 26 and continued over the Easter break. The verdict, she said, was "only finalised in the late hours of last night".
Mr Hutch's two co-accused - Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (52), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 were each found guilty of the charge of participating in or contributing to the murder of Mr Byrne (33) by providing access to motor vehicles on February 5th, 2016.
The court heard that the shooting took place during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel. A man dressed as a woman and another man wearing a flat cap, who were armed with handguns, stormed the hotel followed by three people dressed in tactical-style garda uniforms carrying assault rifles.
It was the prosecution’s case that an integral part of the operation which led to Mr Byrne's death was the means by which the tactical team escaped, which was central to the case of Bonney and Murphy.
Around the time of the boxing weigh-in at 2.20pm, six motor vehicles were observed on CCTV footage driving in convoy from Donnycarney in North Dublin and parking up at St Vincent’s GAA club, a short distance to the east of the Regency Hotel.
It was the State’s case that a silver Ford transit van containing six people left the Regency Hotel after the shooting and drove towards Charlemont Estate, where the vehicle was abandoned and burnt out. CCTV footage from 2.40pm that day showed six men running down Charlemont Lane into St Vincent’s GAA club towards various parked cars to make good their escape.
Fiona Murphy SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, submitted in her closing speech that the assistance that Murphy and Bonney gave on February 5th was access to each of their motor vehicles by those involved in the murder of Mr Byrne.
She said that Murphy and Bonney had travelled to the GAA club at the end of the lane at Charlemont in convoy with other cars on February 5th. "Six cars travelled and six cars were available when six men came running up the lane," she said.
Ms Murphy said that CCTV footage showed that one of the raiders who had cooperated with the tactical team - dissident republican gunman Kevin Murray, known as “Flat Cap” - had placed a bag in the back seat of Bonney’s black BMW X5 jeep before the assailant got into the front seat of the jeep belonging to and driven by Bonney.
Mr Murray died from motor neurone disease in 2017 before he could be brought to trial."Within seconds, the cars have driven up the road in convoy and are seen leaving the same area in this convoy and it's submitted that is clearly to facilitate the escape of the men who were involved in the criminality at the Regency Hotel," she said.
'Very serious crime'
Ms Murphy submitted that from marrying this evidence the court could be satisfied that the Avensis taxi and the BMW X5 jeep belonging to and driven by Murphy and Bonney respectively were involved in a convoy with the other four cars that were involved in giving assistance to the raiders who carried out the “very serious crime” on February 5th at the Regency Hotel.
Ms Murphy said the finding of an ACT swipe card in Murphy's Avensis used to access Buckingham Village in Dublin's north inner city - a central location for those involved in the planning of the Regency shooting - was consistent with him accessing and attending there on February 5th. "More significant still is the fact that it is the next in the sequence of cards that are found in Patsy Hutch's home on Champion's Avenue,” she argued. Patsy Hutch Senior is the older brother of Gerard Hutch.
Bonney’s defence was that on February 5, he never drove his jeep, which the prosecution say was used in the attack, south of Newbrook Avenue, Donaghmede, [north of the Regency Hotel] but his father did.
Defence alibi witness Julie McGlynn said that Bonney was working at a house renovation miles to the north around 15 minutes after the Regency attack. The defence witness also gave evidence that she saw the BMW X5 jeep being driven away by Bonney's now deceased father on the morning of February 5th and that she had met Bonney between 2.45pm and 2.50pm that day.
The second witness called by Bonney was Peter Tyrell, who said that he knew the jeep belonged to William Bonney from their involvement in a leisure centre in Donaghmede where he was chairman and that the vehicle would always be there. He said he was not on good terms with the Bonneys as he was involved in a civil dispute with them over the ownership of the club which went to the High Court in 2015.
He said he was driving from Coolock to his home in Artane on the afternoon of February 5th when a black jeep came up behind. “I seen the jeep coming very close to me and I looked in the mirror and I said Jesus, that’s Wille Bonney driving that jeep,” Mr Tyrell said. “He came up close to me and I said bloody hell, I wonder what’s going on?”. He said he drove into his front driveway and the jeep drove on.
Paul Byrne, who was called as a rebuttal witness by the State, said that he and his wife - Jason Bonney's sister - called to her parents house for lunch at Donaghmede Drive on February 5 th,2016 and stayed until after 4pm. The witness, who she said had "close ties" with Willie Bonnie, parked behind his black Lexus jeep; the only jeep he drove. Mr Byrne said Willie did not leave the house at any point and that they heard about the Regency attack on the television or the radio during the afternoon.
'Clearly lies'
In her closing speech Ms Murphy told the court that Ms McGlynn's evidence "doesn't hold any water" and asked the three judges to see her evidence for what it was; "clearly lies". Ms Murphy said Bonney was mercilessly using his mother and father for his own benefit and that was why Mr Byrne had come to give evidence.
Ms Justice Burns presided over the trial and is delivering the court's judgement today with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone.
Each man had both pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to activity intending to or being reckless as to whether such participation or contribution could facilitate the commission of a serious offence by a criminal organisation or any of its members, to wit the murder of David Byrne, by providing access to individual motor vehicles to that criminal organisation or its members, within the State on February 5th, 2016.
