CCTV footage of two men, one in a flat cap and another in a wig, running through the hotel on the day of the Regency shooting has been shown in court as part of the latest evidence before the Special Criminal Court.
Gerry “The Monk” Hutch pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne when he was arraigned before the Special Criminal Court on Tuesday as the murder trial began.
Mr Byrne, 34, was killed during a crowded boxing bout weigh-in in one of the early attacks of the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud on February 5 2016.
Mr Byrne was shot six times in what has been previously described as an “execution-style killing” at the north Dublin venue.
During the incident, people dressed in tactical gear entered through the front of the hotel and two people, one in a flat cap and another in a wig, entered through the laundry entrance.
On Wednesday, Garda Michelle Purcell from the divisional technical support unit at Santry Garda Station showed the court CCTV footage from the day of the Regency shooting.
A silver van is seen arriving through the electric gates at the back of the hotel, before the two men enter through the laundry room entrance to the building.
Ms Purcell said the footage showed the man in the flat cap and wig linking arms as they walked through the hotel, with the person in the wig “constantly” on the phone.
Ms Purcell said the two are seen walking up the corridor towards the reception area and the Regency suite.
People are then seen fleeing the scene.
Later footage shows the person in the wig and the man in the flat cap running back into the hotel’s laundry room entrance and through a corridor of the hotel.
A person in tactical gear is seen approaching from the opposite end of the corridor, shortly before leaving the scene.
The CCTV footage shows that they were in the hotel for around six minutes.
James McGettigan, whose family owned the Regency hotel and who was the director of the hotel at the time of the shooting, also gave evidence and described the confusion of the scene.
He said he was standing at the bar counter, when people in masks and tactical gear came into the hotel “very quickly and rush towards the bar and elsewhere, so it was a bit of a surprise”.
He said that his initial impression was that they were gardai.
He told the court that they shouted out that they were looking for boxers and asked where they were, and that there was a “bit of pandemonium around the place”.
Mr McGettigan said that he was standing right next to one of the gunmen while everyone else in the bar was lying on the ground.
He could see “a lot of running around”, and hear shots as well as people screaming and shouting.
Mr McGettigan said the man beside him disappeared after what he thought was around 40 seconds “and it was me on my own with everyone in the bar”.
Photographer Colin O’Riordan, who was covering the boxing weigh-in for work, told the court that he had taken photos of the weigh-in before leaving after 10-15 minutes.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Mr O’Riordan said that he saw a man in the wig appear from the hotel.
“I heard him say, ‘he wasn’t there, I couldn’t find him’,” he told the court.
“I heard someone else say ‘get the f*** out of here’,” he said, and told the court they were all Dublin accents.
The murder trial is continuing on Wednesday afternoon.
