Gerard Hutch (born 11 April 1963) is an Irish criminal. He was the prime suspect for two of the biggest armed robberies in Irish history. [1] [2] Known for leading a "disciplined, ascetic lifestyle" since leaving prison in 1985, he was nicknamed "The Monk" by investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. [3] [4] [5] Hutch is also the leader of the organized crime group the Hutch Gang, and was charged but acquitted of the murder of David Byrne.
Born in central Dublin on 11 April 1963, [6] his criminal career began at the age of 10. [3] At some point in the 1970s, Hutch joined the Bugsy Malone Gang of inner city youngsters (named for the Bugsy Malone film), which he later led, and whose crimes included "jump-overs" - jumping over bank counters, grabbing cash and running. [3]
He was later part of a gang involved in major robberies and received many convictions between 1970 and 1983 intermittently spending time in prison. [7] His gang was said to have amassed an estimated IR£40 million from a series of bank robberies, jewellery heists, and fraud scams spanning almost eight years.
Hutch admitted to being a "convicted criminal" in a 2008 interview with The Independent , but insisted that he made his money through property deals, not crime. [8] [9]
In April 2021, he became the subject of a European Arrest Warrant as Gardaí said they had enough evidence to charge him with murder in connection with the shooting of David Byrne. [10] The EAW was issued after the Director for Public Prosecutions moved that he be charged with murder and tried before the Special Criminal Court. [10] He is also likely to face other charges, such as attempted murder and possession of firearms. [10] An investigation file was submitted by Garda detectives based in Ballymun to the DPP late in 2020. He was arrested in Spain in August 2021. [11]
On 29 September 2021 he was extradited to Ireland, flown in a military CASA 235 from Madrid to Casement Aerodrome by the Irish Defence Forces. [12] He was then taken to the Criminal Courts of Justice under armed Garda escort where he was charged with the murder of David Byrne before the Special Criminal Court. [12] He was remanded in custody until 15 October at 10:30am. [12] Other co-accused are to stand trial on 3 October 2022 and the state solicitor asked that he come in on that date, to which the three judges agreed. [12]
Both Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall, who is also charged with the murder, claimed in judicial review before the High Court that trial before the Special Criminal Court would be unlawful and a breach of their fundamental rights because the court was acting as a permanent institution after being established on a temporary basis. [13] These were dismissed by Mr Anthony Barr, who ruled that the legislation was neither temporary nor had any temporal limit. [13] Both Hutch and Dowdall sought leave to appeal the High Court decision to the Supreme Court. [13] On 5 May 2022 a panel reserved judgement in both cases. [13] After a request from counsel for the Attorney General, the case was adjourned until 1 July 2022, pending the Supreme Court decision. [13]
The trial began in October 2022. [14]
On 17 April 2023, Hutch was found not guilty. [15]
On 21 April 2023, an investigator with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission resigned after allegations the officer had attended the same party as Hutch on the 19 April. [16] [17]
In 1999, in the course of court proceedings brought against Hutch by the Irish state's anti-money laundering agency, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), Detective Chief Superintendent Felix McKenna stated that Hutch had been involved in the IR£1.7 million robbery of an armoured van at Marino Mart in January 1987 and the £3 million armed robbery of a Brinks Allied Security Depot in Clonshaugh, County Dublin, in 1995, which had been the largest cash robbery in the State at the time. [3] [18]
Hutch eventually reached an £1.2m settlement with the CAB to "cover back taxes and interest for a nine-year period". [3] [19]
Hutch has also been awarded money from legal actions in Irish courts. These included £8,500 won from Securicor Ireland in June 1991, £2,000 from the Sunday Tribune newspaper in a libel action and around £26,000 won in legal actions against the Irish state. [3]
In 2014, Hutch's Wikipedia article was one of the first pages requested for removal under the European Union's Right to be Forgotten Act. This required search engines, such as Google, to remove links to the Wikipedia article from their search results. The Wikimedia Foundation does not know who requested this removal. [20] Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales described the act as "deeply immoral". [21]
Hutch is depicted in the film Veronica Guerin , played by Alan Devine. [22] It is based on the life of the late Irish journalist Veronica Guerin who had interviewed him. [2]
Hutch appeared on RTÉ's Prime Time programme in March 2008 where he was interviewed about his life and criminal career. Hutch denied any criminal activity, since his last prison sentence, other than tax evasion. [8]
Hutch was the subject of investigation in the Irish TV3 channel's television series, Dirty Money . [8] Episode 5, which aired March 2008 was solely devoted to the assets seized by the CAB from Hutch [23] and the threat to seize assets from his family. [24]
Gerry Hutch is the leader of the Hutch Gang, an organized crime group that includes members of his family. He is an uncle of Gary Hutch, who was shot dead in September 2015 near Marbella, Andalusia, Spain. [25] His brother Eddie Hutch Snr. was shot dead in North Strand Dublin in February 2016. [25] These killings are part of the Hutch-Kinahan feud between Hutch and the rival Kinahan family.
In 1998 he was a founding member of the Corinthians Boxing Club in Dublin and has served as treasurer for the club. The club has a full gym and a boxing ring. The latter was donated by film director Jim Sheridan after making the film The Boxer . [3]
After the CAB settlement in 1999, Hutch applied for and was granted a taxi licence, [26] [27] and set up the limousine service Carry Any Body. The name is a humorous reference to the Criminal Assets Bureau. [28] [29] He has featured in the Irish media as he has driven celebrities [28] including Mike Tyson [30] on their visits to Ireland.
Veronica Guerin Turley was an Irish investigative journalist focusing on organised crime in the Republic of Ireland, who was murdered in a contract killing believed to have been ordered by a South Dublin-based drug cartel. Born in Dublin, she was an athlete in school and later played on the Irish national teams for both Association football and basketball. After studying accountancy she ran a public-relations firm for seven years, before working for Fianna Fáil and as an election agent for Seán Haughey. She became a reporter in 1990, writing for the Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune. In 1994 she began writing articles about the Irish criminal underworld for the Sunday Independent. In 1996, after pressing charges for assault against major organised crime figure John Gilligan, Guerin was ambushed and fatally shot in her vehicle while waiting at a traffic light. The shooting caused national outrage in Ireland. Investigation into her death led to a number of arrests and convictions.
Joseph Costello is an Irish former Labour Party politician who was a member of Dublin City Council from 2019 to 2023. He served as a Minister of State from 2011 to 2014. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 1992 to 1997 and 2000 to 2016.
Veronica Guerin is a 2003 biographical crime film directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Cate Blanchett in the title role. The screenplay by Carol Doyle and Mary Agnes Donoghue focuses on Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, whose investigation into the drug trade in Dublin led to her murder in 1996, at the age of 37. The film is the second to be inspired by Guerin's life, following When the Sky Falls (2000).
The Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in Ireland which tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases.
Dirty Money: The Story of the Criminal Assets Bureau was an Irish crime program broadcast on TV3 at 10pm on Monday nights. The show began on 25 February and ended on 3 April 2008. The series comprised six one-hour episodes examining the role of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). The program was presented and narrated by the then Sunday World journalist Paul Williams. Williams explores what led to the establishment of the multi-agency Bureau and interviews the people who played a big part in the formation of the bureau.
John Gilligan is a convicted Irish gangster. He was given a 28-year prison sentence for the trafficking of commercial quantities of cannabis resin. On appeal, this sentence was reduced to 20 years, and in October 2013, he was released after serving 17 years.
John Traynor was a major Irish organized crime figure who was a both a longtime confidential source for Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin and a prime suspect in allegedly arranging her 1996 contract killing.
Patrick Eugene "Dutchy" Holland, was an Irish career criminal involved in armed robbery, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, and money laundering. He was also an alleged hitman well-known as the prime suspect in the 1996 contract killings of Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. Holland denied committing the crime, however, until his death as a convict in HM Prison Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight in England.
The McCarthy-Dundon's is a criminal gang based in Limerick City, Ireland. Their main base is Ballinacurra Weston on Limerick's southside but they also have a strong presence in Southill and in the northside suburb of Moyross. The gang, involved in drug dealing, extortion and armed robbery, have been central players in the Limerick feud, which has claimed up to 13 lives. The feud, which involves several criminal families, mainly the McCarthy-Dundons, the Ryans and the Keane-Collopy gang from St. Mary's Park, has been ongoing since 2000.
Christopher Vincent Kinahan, Sr. ; is an Irish drug dealer with convictions for ecstasy and heroin smuggling.
The Irish criminal David Byrne was shot dead on 5 February 2016 at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin.
The shooting of Eddie Hutch Snr occurred on 8 February 2016. Eddie was the brother of Gerry Hutch, the leader of the Hutch gang, which was in a feud with the Kinahan gang, led by Christy Kinahan. The feud of the two criminal gangs, called the 2015–16 Irish gangland feud, in the Republic of Ireland resulted in the deaths of ten people.
The Hutch–Kinahan feud is a major ongoing feud between two criminal organisations in Ireland that has resulted in the deaths of eighteen people, the majority of which have been perpetrated by the Kinahan family. The Hutch gang, led by Gerry Hutch, and the Kinahan Family, led by Daniel Kinahan, are the main participants.
Gareth Hutch was shot dead in Dublin on Tuesday 24 May 2016. He was a nephew of Gerry Hutch. He was also a cousin of Gary Hutch and a nephew of Eddie Hutch Snr.
Liam Byrne is an Irish criminal and member of the Byrne Organised Crime Group and the Kinahan Organised Crime Group founded by Christy Kinahan.
Jonathan Dowdall is a former Sinn Féin councillor on Dublin City Council in Ireland. He came to national prominence due to his involvement in the killing of David Byrne in 2016 and the subsequent criminal investigation.
Noel "Duck Egg" Kirwan was shot dead on 22 December 2016. He had been friends with Gerry "the Monk" Hutch all his life.
The Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG), also known as the Kinahan Cartel, is a major Irish transnational organised crime syndicate alleged to be the most powerful in Ireland and one of the largest organised crime groups in the world. It is also established in the UK, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates. It was founded by Christy Kinahan in the 1990s. His eldest son Daniel manages the day-to-day operations of the family's criminal group. Estimated reports have credited them with wealth of up to €1 billion.
The Hutch Organized Crime Gang (HOCG), also known as the Hutch Gang, is a criminal organization with a long history of illegal activities, primarily based in Ireland. Over the years, they have been involved in a range of criminal enterprises, including murders, drug trafficking, armed robberies, and property deals. The gang has operated not only in Ireland but also in Spain and the United Kingdom, amassing assets estimated to be as high as €20 million.