THE mother of Gareth Hutch has told how her son’s murder in an ambush outside his home over eight years ago was “a violent and callous crime with no value or thought given for a life”.
In a statement read out at a sentencing hearing for the fourth person to be convicted of the murder of Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s nephew Gareth Hutch, Vera Hutch said her son was “senselessly and cruelly taken” from her family in May 2016, tearing her life apart and changing their world “forever”.
Having heard the victim impact statement from Mrs Hutch, in the Special Criminal Court, presiding judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sentenced Thomas ‘Nicky’ McConnell to the mandatory term of life imprisonment, backdating it to July 20 2020, when he was taken into custody by Turkish authorities and then extradited back to Ireland.
Last December, McConnell became the fourth person to be found guilty of the murder of Mr Hutch in an ambush in Dublin over eight years ago, following a verdict by the Special Criminal Court.
Revealing the verdict of the three-judge court last month, Mr Justice Owens said that the evidence showed, beyond reasonable doubt, that McConnell was the second assassin in the attack along with Jonathan Keogh, who followed Gareth Hutch from his home and shot him dead.
When passing judgement the court found that Keogh’s gun discharged a number of bullets at close range that caused the injuries which killed Mr Hutch.
McConnell’s gun was later found to have the safety catch on and did not fire any rounds during the assassination.
However, the court found that even if McConnell deliberately left the safety catch on, his other actions in preparation for the shooting showed that he was part of a common design with Keogh and others to commit murder and his actions were intended to result in Mr Hutch’s death.
Vera Hutch, whose victim impact statement was read to the court by Detective Garda Liam Lee, said she had the “privilege and honour of being Gareth’s mother for over 35 years before he was senseless and cruelly taken from” his family.
She said: “Standing here in front of you today with my life torn apart, our world changed forever. Losing Gareth has caused my heart and all our families hearts to be broken, nothing can ever repair the emptiness that his death has caused.”
At today’s sitting of the non-jury court, Det Gda Lee told prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy SC that McConnell has 105 previous convictions including those for assault, threatening to kill and causing serious harm as well as possession of knives.
McConnell, 39, of Sillogue Gardens, Ballymun, Dublin 11 had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gareth Hutch, 36, on May 24, 2016 at Avondale House, North Cumberland Street, Dublin 1.
FOURTH PERSON CONVICTED
He is the fourth person to be convicted of the murder. In November 2018 the Special Criminal Court found Regina Keogh, 47, of Cumberland St North, Dublin 1, Jonathan Keogh, 39, with an address at Gloucester Place, Dublin 1 and Thomas Fox, 32, with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1 guilty of the murder of Mr Hutch.
McConnell’s trial began in 2023 but was postponed for 16 months, firstly when one of the judges was unable to continue and then as the court awaited a Supreme Court ruling in a separate case.
McConnell’s trial continued after the Supreme Court found in that case that traffic and location data relating to mobile phones could be used as evidence, even though the data was harvested using a now-invalidated law.
The trial heard that McConnell and Jonathan Keogh used an apartment opposite Gareth Hutch’s home as a lookout spot and when Mr Hutch emerged from his front door, they followed him and shot him dead.
Mary McDonnell, who lived at the lookout apartment, told the trial in June 2023 that she could identify Jonathan Keogh because she had known him for many years but she did not know the second man.
When asked to identify the second man from CCTV footage showing Mr McConnell in a shop later the same day, she said she was “not really one hundred per cent” and that she was “half and half”.
COURT EVIDENCE
Mr Justice Owens said last month that Ms McDonnell’s evidence could not be used to prove McConnell was the second gunman.
The court instead relied on mobile phone data linking McConnell to the other murder plotters, CCTV footage connecting McConnell to various vehicles used in the plot, and lies told by the accused to gardai that were indicative of guilt.
In particular, the court was satisfied that McConnell parked a black BMW in front of Avondale House with the intention of using it as the getaway car. Following the shooting, Keogh and McConnell got into the BMW but could not get it started.
They then ran to a Skoda Octavia, which the court said had also been parked nearby by McConnell that morning. They left the scene in the Octavia.
When gardai searched the BMW, they found McConnell’s DNA, a can of petrol and two changes of clothes that prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy SC said marked it out as a getaway car. McConnell would later lie to gardai that he had sold the BMW to a man who was similar looking to himself.
Mr Justice Owens said this “yarn” was told to hide McConnell’s guilty role in the murder plot.
In reaching its verdict, the court relied on further lies told by the accused and emails on a phone linked to McConnell which showed he had an “intimate knowledge of the murder”.
