Gerard Hutch remains in Dublin just over three weeks after being acquitted of the murder of David Byrne, though Garda sources said he had begun taking tighter security precautions around his movements.
The 60-year-old father of five returned to his family home in Clontarf, north Dublin, after being cleared by the Special Criminal Court last month of the 2016 Regency Hotel murder. Gardaí were very surprised he did not leave the Republic immediately, given the threat against him from the Kinahan cartel.
However, while he was in the days after he was acquitted seen walking around in the Clontarf area, and in Dublin’s north inner city where he is from, he has been notably more careful about his movements of late.
Gardaí said he has been seen travelling around on a motorbike, which enables him to conceal his identity by wearing a full face helmet, rather than travelling by car. Aside from the anonymity afforded by such a helmet, sources said it was a much safer mode of transport Mr Hutch as he could avoid being stuck in traffic in a car and being exposed to attack.
A number of Garda sources who spoke to The Irish Times said it appeared Mr Hutch wanted to be seen and photographed by the media walking around Dublin to create the impression he was not living in fear. They also believed he was determined to enjoy a period of freedom in the open in his home city after being on remand in prison for 20 months and living abroad for years before being extradited to stand trial. However, having now achieved that goal of being seen living openly, some gardaí believe Mr Hutch would soon leave the Republic.
“The Kinahans are definitely under extreme pressure [in Ireland] but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t organise an attack on him,” said one source. “He probably felt with all the attention on him in the period after the trial it was unlikely [the Kinahans] would try something. But the longer he hangs around, you’d have to say the chances of something happening to him are higher.”
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However, other gardaí are convinced Mr Hutch would be safer to remain in Dublin, saying the Kinahan cartel associates in the city were being monitored. They believed the cartel’s capacity to attack Mr Hutch was smaller in Ireland than on Continental Europe, once they learned of his whereabouts there, which they believed would be inevitable in time.
It emerged on Monday the Director of Public Prosecutions was opposing a legal costs application by Mr Hutch following his acquittal of the murder of Kinahan cartel associate David Byrne. The three-judge Special Criminal Court has fixed Friday to hear the application for costs sought by Mr Hutch’s lawyers, estimated at a substantial six-figure sum.
