A man who gave evidence in relation to Regency getaway driver Jason Bonney has insisted he did not tell lies to the court.
Peter Tyrell stunned the Special Criminal Court late into the trial of Jason Bonney when he unexpectedly took the stand at the eleventh hour claiming that he saw the accused man’s father Willie driving the BMW X5 jeep alleged to have been used to help the hit team escape - just minutes after the murder.
Ms Justice Tara Burns would later reject the claims and said the court had been "lied" to in the "most malevolent manner." But Peter insists: "I know what I saw."
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Jason Bonney is set to be sentenced next Monday after being found guilty of facilitating the murder of David Byrne by using his black BMW X5 to pick up one of the hit team - Kevin ‘Flat Cap’ Murray, at St Vincent’s GAA club, following the shooting on February 5, 2016.
In his defence he had tried to claim that his now deceased father Willie drove the BMW X5 that day and not him - calling Peter and a woman named Julie McGlynn to the stand, who both appeared to back up those claims through separate stories.
In scathing remarks during her judgement, Ms Justice Tara Burns said that the court was “lied to in the most malevolent manner,” when it came to these claims.
“A dead father has been implicated in the Regency by his son’s witnesses. That anybody thought that these lies would be accepted by the Court is quite frankly amazing,” she further added.
But speaking exclusively to this paper today, Peter says he stands by his story - that he saw the now deceased Willie Bonney driving at speed behind him on the Artane roundabout around 10 minutes after the shooting at the Regency.
“I saw what I saw and I know myself what I saw because the car came down behind me and it nearly hit me. I actually came into my driveway and I said that’s yer man Willie Bonney,” he insisted.
Peter, who once sued the Bonney’s over ownership of a leisure centre and claims there is “no love” between them, says he knew the car and he knew Willie Bonney - and therefore his memory of the incident has stuck with him.
“Because I had actually seen that car at the complex at Donaghmede for years you know but that’s all I saw.
Peter only came forward with the information during the trial after his wife Jacinta had earlier been called to give evidence of when gardai came to their home to secure CCTV of the BMW X5 passing their home in Artane on February 5, 2016.
However, he claims gardai never spoke to him about the footage they had obtained from his home - and it was only through watching it in court that he then felt compelled to come forward with what he saw.
“But that was six and a half years ago. If the guards had come to us when they took the CCTV and said look at the evidence on that, I’d have said ah yeah that's who I saw.
“But they (gardai) went back down to my wife, you know, and not me. Sure she doesn’t know anything.”
Asked if he could possibly have been mistaken about seeing Willie Bonney driving the jeep that day, Peter says he remembers the incident well because of the erratic nature of the man’s driving behind him.
“Again I know and I seen what I seen. Because he came behind me not once, but twice or three times and when he came off the roundabout I was pulling around he nearly hit me.
“I remember it. But after a while I didn't think anything of it. But we did have a confrontation before over the leisure centre in the High Court case which he lost against us.
“So that’s why there’s no love (between us). I never had any dealings and I don't want any dealings (with Jason Bonney),” he said.
“There’s no relationship at all (between us). None whatsoever,” he added.
However in spite of his evidence being firmly dismissed by the three judges and Bonney being found guilty - Peter says he could care less.
“I couldn't give a damn personally. I just got called into court and said what I saw. Why didn't they call us in six and a half years ago and I’d have said the same probably."
Also speaking to this paper, Peter’s wife Jacinta, who was also a witness in the trial, said in her view Ms Justice Tara Burns has the right to call her husband a liar.
“That’s her prerogative isn't it. She wasn’t here that day, she wasn’t in the car. The police never asked him did he see anything that day, so like, we have to live with it.
“The police never asked us to look at the video or say anything. It was only in the court when they were asking me questions about it.
“He didn't even know they were going to show the video. So basically it stems from that.”
During the trial a brother-in-law of Jason Bonney, Paul Byrne, gave a different narrative, which was ultimately accepted by the court - that he and his wife had in fact spent the day with Willie Bonney at his home on February 5, 2016 - and that he never left.
In her judgement Ms Tara Burns said the evidence of Peter Tyrell had to be treated with “scepticism.”
She also said that it seemed “bizarre” that he would go to Jason Bonney’s solicitor rather than ask gardai to see the footage.
The judge also said Peter Tyrell is in conflict with other evidence presented in the trial and he seems to be “quite incorrect that he regularly saw William Bonney driving this BMW jeep” in light of the fact that Jason Bonney himself said that he was the only person driving it from 2009 onwards.
Meanwhile, Julie McGlynn, who said she had known Jason Bonney for over 30 years, claimed that she saw him at her mother’s home in Donaghmede on February 5, 2016.
Ms McGlynn further claimed her mother went to Mass and she got a knock at her door from Mr Bonney’s father Willie at around 11am.
She claimed Willie was there to see her mother, and upon learning she wasn’t there asked to use the toilet as there were no facilities in the house across the road that he was involved in renovating.
Ms McGlynn said she let Willie in and “shouted up, do you want a cup of tea.” She said she knew him over the years and that he had socialised with her father.
The witness said Jason Bonney called to the house “probably about half 11” and that the three of them had a “chit chat” before they left the house.
Ms McGlynn said she then saw Jason Bonney go across the road to the house that was being renovated - and she saw Willie Bonney getting into the BMW X5 and driving off.
The witness was shown pictures of the BMW X5 and said that it “definitely” looked like the jeep, citing the fact that she said her sister had the same jeep.
She said she then went to pick her kids up from the school bus at around 2:35pm, before returning to her mother’s house and discovering a truck parked in the way outside.
Ms McGlynn said she recognised the truck as belonging to Jason Bonney - and said she went over across the road to the house that was being renovated on Newbrook Avenue and asked to see him. The witness told the court that Jason Bonney came out and apologised to her and moved the truck.
This allegedly occurred sometime at around 2:45pm - roughly five minutes after the BMW X5 that the State alleges Bonney was driving was picked up on CCTV aiding the Regency hit-team to escape at St Vincents GAA - 7km away.
It was also almost 15 minutes after David Byrne had just been shot dead in the lobby of the Regency Hotel at 2:32pm. Ms McGlynn said she knows the conversation she had with Jason Bonney “definitely” happened sometime before 3pm as she had just come back from picking the kids up off the school bus.
However, Ms Justice Tara Burns said her evidence too had to be treated with scepticism “in circumstances where she applied for planning permission for a plot of land owned by Jason Bonney for the purpose of building a house for herself.”
Ms McGlynn had told the court she was prepared to buy the land off Jason Bonney.
Ms Justice Burns also said it seemed a “bizarre situation” that Julie McGlynn had this “vital exonerating information” but she did nothing about it until she was approached by Bonney’s solicitor shortly before the trial.
She also said the claims of Ms McGlynn do not tally with CCTV evidence in the case.
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