Verdict is Hutch a relief for 'The Monk'

Judge dismisses claims Hutch a shooter in Regency. Hits out at State witness Dowdall for 'bare-faced lie

- PAUL HEALY

GERRY 'The Monk' Hutch has been found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel - and is now a free man.

In dramatic scenes yesterday afternoon, Hutch, 60, walked straight out the front doors of the Central Criminal Courts in Dublin's Parkgate Street.

It came after the non-jury Special Criminal Court found him not guilty of the Kinahan cartel associate's murder.

Dressed in a blazer and sporting a large grey beard and long-hair, Hutch, who had spent the past year and a half in custody, calmly walked down the street, surrounded by a crowd of media and members of the public, saying nothing before getting into a taxi.

Murder victim David Byrne, 33, was shot dead in the foyer of the Regency Hotel by armed gunmen disguised as gardai and carrying AK-47 rifles on the afternoon of Friday, February 5, 2016.

In reading out her lengthy judgement in the trial yesterday, Presiding Judge Ms Justice Tara Burns found that the evidence showed that Gerry Hutch was in fact in possession of those firearms and "had control of them" on March 7- a month after the shooting - but this was "not the case Gerard Hutch was here to meet".

CLAIM

She stated that the prosecution's case was plainly that Hutch was one of the shooters and was present in the Regency Hotel during the murder but there was no evidence to support this claim and his whereabouts on the day could not even be established.