Trial resumes of man accused of the murder of Gareth Hutch

Eoin Reynolds

The trial of Thomas 'Nicky' McConnell, who denies murdering a nephew of Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch, has resumed more than one year after it was adjourned.

Mr McConnell is accused of the murder of Gareth Hutch, who was shot dead by two gunmen in an ambush outside his home in 2016.

After hearing two weeks of evidence, the trial at the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court had to restart in June 2023 when one of the judges was unable to continue.

It was set to resume that October but was then delayed by a year while awaiting a key Supreme Court ruling in a separate case against two men, where the court found that traffic and location data relating to mobile phones was correctly admitted into evidence, even though the data was harvested pursuant to a now-invalidated law.

When the trial resumed on Tuesday morning, presiding judge Mr Justice Alex Owens delivered a judgement on legal arguments that took place before the hiatus in the trial. In the judgement, Mr Justice Owens rejected arguments that Mr McConnell's arrest was unlawful and that gardaí had exceeded their authority by seizing mobile phones found beside the accused man's bed during his arrest.

Fiona Murphy SC told the court that the final evidence in the trial will be heard on Wednesday before she delivers her closing speech.

Mr McConnell (38) 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.

Mr McConnell is the fourth person to go on trial accused of the same murder. It is the prosecution case that Mr McConnell and Jonathan Keogh used an apartment opposite Gareth Hutch's home as a lookout spot and when Mr Hutch emerged from his front door, they followed him and shot him dead.

Mary McDonnell, who lived at the apartment used by the shooters, told the trial in June last year that she could identify Jonathan Keogh because she had known him for many years, but she did not know the second man, who the prosecution alleges was Mr McConnell.

She agreed that gardaí showed her CCTV footage from a shop which they allege showed Mr McConnell with Keogh at a newsagents on the day of the murder. Ms McDonnell told gardaí that the second person "could be" the man she saw in her apartment with Keogh.

She further agreed that when pushed by gardaí, she said she was "not really one hundred per cent".

In November 2018, the Special Criminal Court found Regina Keogh (47) of Cumberland St North, Dublin 1, Jonathan Keogh (39) with an address at Gloucester Place, Dublin 1 and Thomas Fox (32) with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1 guilty of the murder of Mr Hutch.