Permission to use a Garda bug to record murder accused Gerard “The Monk” Hutch and an ex-Sinn Fein councillor was sought under “a culture of secrecy”, a court heard yesterday.
Defence barrister Brendan Grehan added “on its face” there had been an illegal operation of the Criminal Justice Surveillance Act 2009. He further claimed the prosecution was seeking to “wheel the evidence in” which “extended beyond the territorial boundaries” and say “none of that matters”.
Mr Grehan completed his submissions to the three-judge court on why the secret audio recording, which the State says is “part of the core” of their case, is inadmissible. Hutch, 59, of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin, denies the murder of Kinahan cartel member David Byrne, 33, during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
