A man accused of helping the Regency hit-team escape said he was "going through hell" - after claiming he received a threat from the Kinahan cartel.
Jason Bonney is accused of driving a BMW X5 jeep to St Vincents GAA club and aiding the hit team escape - following the alleged murder of David Byrne in the nearby Regency Hotel in North Co Dublin on February 5, 2016.
Mr Bonney (51) of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, who denies the charge, told gardai he was on a building site at a house in Donaghmede North Co Dublin when he said he heard about the Regency attack on the radio, the court heard.
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However gardai claim he was in his BMW X5 when it pulled up and waited along with other vehicles for the six-man hit team to come through an alleyway and meet them.
It is also alleged that co-accused man Paul Murphy (59) of Cherry Avenue in Swords was also there - waiting to pick up one of the gunmen in his Avensis taxi that day - something he too denies.
Bonney is accused along with Murphy, in a trial that is running alongside that of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch - who is accused of the murder of David Byrne.
Detective Sergeant Patrick O’Toole told the court that he arrested Mr Bonney at a house in Newbrook Avenue in Donaghmede on the morning of May 27, 2016.
Det Sgt O’Toole said he went upstairs to the bedroom of the home where he spoke with Mr Bonney and formally arrested him over the alleged murder of David Byrne at 7:20am - taking him to Ballymun Garda Station.
The Det Sgt said he informed the Sergeant in charge that Bonney was “suspected of being involved” in the Regency attack and that gardai had identified a BMW X5 jeep that he was in possession of on that date.
He said gardai had carried out enquiries in relation to that jeep and found CCTV footage showing it at “numerous locations” on the day of the alleged murder - and that Mr Bonney was “in that jeep on a number of those occasions.”
The Det Sgt said that the jeep was captured on CCTV leaving Mr Bonney’s home in Portmarnock, on the Howth Road, Donaghmede and at the church on the Malahide Road before it went into St Vincent's GAA Club - close to the Regency.
He said that he informed the Sergeant that the jeep was in the car park of the GAA Club “at the time," referring to the Regency attack.
He also said he was “satisfied that it was part of a convoy” of vehicles that had gone into the GAA club "to take away people involved" in the killing and to “aid them to escape.”
CCTV footage had also captured a person getting into the jeep at the GAA club with a hold-all bag, and the vehicle was subsequently captured leaving, he said.
Mr Bonney had previously been interviewed by gardai at his home in Portmarnock, where he had given an account of his movements a day after his BMW X5 had been seized by officers, the court heard.
Challenged by the Defence, Det Sgt O’Toole was asked if he had explained to the Sergeant in charge that night that Mr Bonney was not actually visible on CCTV with the BMW in St Vincents GAA club.
The Det Sgt said he had not, and later the Sergeant stated that he was satisfied that there were grounds to detain Mr Bonney.
The Defence for Mr Bonney put it to the Sergeant that his client is not seen on CCTV with the jeep at St Vincent’s GAA - and that he is only seen with it at his home in Drumnigh Wood that morning.
Details were then heard of Mr Bonney’s first interview with gardai in Ballymun garda station following his arrest.
Sergeant Ronan McMorrow, who conducted the interview, said he first asked Bonney what his thoughts were about being there.
“I’m not being rude here but are you a counsellor or a garda? I’m not happy about it," Mr Bonney allegedly said.
It was claimed he went on to say he didn’t feel he should be under arrest and that he was an “ordinary man” who worked all of his life and was a “family man.”
He said he had been living in Newbrook in Donaghmede for the past couple of weeks with his wife and son.
Mr Bonney allegedly said however that he had recently been served with a Garda Information Message (GIM) - informing him of a threat to his life.
As a result he allegedly said his son had just last week moved to Australia - and claimed that gardai had advised him to leave the country too.
Gardaí claim Mr Bonney said in the interview that he was “very frightened” by the threat, which the court later heard was identified as coming from the Kinahan cartel.
He said he and his family have “been through hell and back” and that the guards had been “down several times" after phones were ringing.
“We’ve been going through hell,” he told gardai.
Asked if there would be any reason why his life was under threat Mr Bonney told gardai “No. We are victims.”
He said he got the GIM after gardai came to him to talk to him about the Regency and asked where he was that day.
Asked about his work on the house in Newbrook, Mr Bonney said he and a handful of others were working on it when one of them notified him about news of what was happening at the Regency on the radio.
Later in his interview the threat was discussed again with Mr Bonney saying he was in fear for his family.
He said that ever since the jeep was seized by gardai and the home searched it was “very embarrassing to the kids” and the “love and light had gone out of the house.”
Two men had stopped working with him as a result, he said, and he and his family had been put in dangerous circumstances.
He said that from the very first time gardai contacted him he was obliging and now “I seem to be punished for it.”
Asked if anyone else drove his BMW on occasion, Mr Bonney said “one of the lads” would sometimes take it if they needed something from a suppliers.
But he said he didn't think anyone other than him was driving the jeep that day - and he had taken it to the house in Newbrook, where he maintains he was when the Regency attack occurred.
Again later in the interview Mr Bonney addressed the threat on his life, saying gardai told him it had to do with the Regency.
He said he was getting phone calls at all hours of the night - and had previously informed gardai about them.
He said he was told the threat came from the Kinahan cartel, and he could see no reason as to why.
He said he “went to school with Gary Finnegan” and they had never had an argument, and he couldn’t think of anyone who would have a problem with him.
He allegedly said he also once met Kinahan cartel associate Ross Browning whose father had asked him to chat with boxer Declan Geraghty.
He said he only recently learned that Browning was “part of the cartel” after reading about it in the newspapers.
He also said he had “no argument with that lad.”
Mr Bonney said he had the BMW for a couple of years and that one or two of “the lads” sometimes drove it.
He said he only knew of one pair of keys for the vehicle but that gardai found a second key that he was unaware of.
After 10pm Mr Bonney said he was happy with the interview but he wouldn’t be comfortable due to the ongoing threat - and he was concerned if people heard he was arrested that that threat would be “quadrupled.”
He said he heard about the Regency incident when he and the other men were on lunch - and that he couldn’t be sure what time the work finished up that day.
Asked if he had travelled anywhere near the Regency that day he said he hadn’t - and that “to the best of my recollection” no one else used his BMW X5 that day.
Earlier in the day the court heard that co-accused man Paul Murphy said "thank god" when gardai arrived at his house to tow his car two weeks after the shooting and blessed himself.
The court also heard that a mobile phone registered to Mr Murphy was turned off between 1.20pm and 3pm on the day that Mr Byrne was shot dead.
Det Sgt McGovern gave evidence that Det Sgt Hanley said a mobile phone registered to Mr Murphy was turned off between 1.20pm and 3pm on February 5, which "appeared to be unusual in comparison to the normal usage of his mobile phone".
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