Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch will have nothing but a swiss roll to look forward to as he marks his 60th birthday behind bars.
Sources have told Dublin Live that Hutch, 59, who is set to celebrate the landmark birthday in Wheatfield Prison next month, won’t get any special privileges — except for a possible extended visit from family. Hutch will also mark the occasion just days before he learns his fate — when the verdict in his murder trial will be revealed on April 17.
Sources say Hutch, who is on a restricted landing in Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison, can expect to be gifted with a swiss roll from the tuck-shop on the day of his birthday. It is understood that something similar was arranged by the small number of inmates on the landing on his birthday last year.
Read more: Garda detective quizzed as part of investigations into alleged Hutch gang links
“He won’t be getting any special treatment. The other prisoners on the unit will probably celebrate his birthday with some biscuits or a swiss roll, which is what they did last year,” a source said. “But he’s not the kind of prisoner that would even want that. He largely keeps to himself and doesn’t venture out of the cell often.”
Sources say Hutch mostly spends his days writing notes for his legal team, who fought his case for 13 gruelling weeks during the so-called Trial of the Century. The Special Criminal Court trial of Gerry Hutch for the gangland murder of David Byrne began in October of last year and went on until January.
The court is set to deliver its judgement on April 17. It comes after Hutch’s Defence Counsel Brendan Grehan SC stated in his closing arguments to the court that there is “no evidence” that his client carried out the murder at Dublin’s Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
He also later compared State witness Jonathan Dowdall, who he called a “liar” and a “perjurer”, to Bart Simpson in that he kept saying things to the effect of “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, you can’t prove anything.” However, in her own closing speech, prosecuting counsel Fiona Murphy SC argued that Hutch was “one of the two” gunmen that personally shot Byrne, 34, and that the evidence in the case shows his guilt “beyond all reasonable doubt”.
Ms Murphy said in her hour-long speech that portions of a secretly recorded 10 hour conversation between Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall on March 7, 2016 “clearly” shows an “admission” from the accused, and that he was “in control” of the situation and was the “man in charge” when the firearms allegedly used in the murder were subsequently moved up north. However later in the day Brendan Grehan SC defending Hutch said he would “challenge anyone to find any unambiguous admission” in any of the audio.
He argued that the court must listen to the entire audio “in the round” rather than pick out “isolated” sentences to try and prove Mr Hutch’s guilt. He said Hutch is charged with the singular charge of murder - and argued that there is nothing in the audio to suggest he is guilty of this offence.
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