Alex Trelinski
AN Irish gang boss extradited from Spain three years ago and charged with a 2016 Dublin murder, was acquitted by a judge on Monday.
Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, 60, was found not guilty of the killing of rival Kinahan clan member, David Byrne, who was gunned down during a boxing weigh-in at Dublin’s Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
Hutch was arrested in a joint operation between Irish and Spanish police on August 12, 2021 when he went out for a walk in Fuengirola.
The former crime lord, who had masterminded a bloody feud with the Kinahan clan which spilled onto Andalucia streets was detained under a European Arrest Warrant.
A smiling Gerry Hutch was mobbed when he left the Dublin court after Monday’s not guilty verdict but said nothing as he got into a taxi.
Irish police have warned that he could become a target of rival gangs but he’s expected to leave for Spain this week- possibly returning to Fuengirola or going to Lanzarote.
Two men died after four gangsters, dressed as policemen, tried to assassinate Daniel Kinahan at the fateful 2016 weigh-in.
Kinahan, who organised the fight, was forced to escape through a window of the Regency Hotel.
The son of then gang boss Christy Kinahan was allegedly the main target of the shooting.
The attack was revenge for the murder of Gerry Hutch’s nephew, Gary Hutch in Spain.
A revenge attack days later saw Eddie Hutch Snr – the brother of Gerry Hutch – killed in his home by four gunmen.
Kinahan associate ‘Fat Freddie’ Thompson was subsequently arrested and had his clothes confiscated for forensic testing.
Gerry Hutch always denied any involvement in Byrne’s 2016 Regency Hotel murder with a judge delivering Monday’s non-jury verdict.
Judge Tara Burns said that video footage of the two shooters did not match up to Hutch while audio material suggested he was not in the vicinity of the Regency.
Justice Burns added there was ‘a reasonable possibility’ the murder was planned by Hutch’s brother Patsy and that Gerry Hutch had stepped in as the head of the family in the aftermath, ‘particularly as his own life was at risk’.
Gerry Hutch’s two co-accused, Jason Bonney and Paul Murphy, were convicted of supply a motor vehicle to a criminal organisation- in effect acting as getaway drivers.
Despite Hutch being cleared and the lesser convictions for Bonney and Murphy, Ireland’s Justice Minister, Simon Harris, said that the investigation into the Regency Hotel killing is still ‘live and continuing’.
READ MORE:
- Gerard ‘the Monk’ Hutch loses extradition appeal in Spain over murder of David Byrne in Ireland
- VIDEO: The moment Irish fugitive mobster Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch nabbed by police on Spain’s Costa del Sol
- Irish hitman James Quinn WILL serve 22-year sentence after losing appeal to overturn conviction for Gary Hutch murder on…
