I thought it was a joke, Regency witness says
AN accountant has told the Regency Hotel murder trial that she thought a man in a ‘blonde wig and high heels’ was going to ‘do something funny’.
Margaret Christie told the Special Criminal Court she believed it was a joke until she saw him and a man with a flat cap fire from black guns.
David Byrne, from Crumlin south Dublin, was shot dead at the hotel during a boxing weighin on February 5, 2016’. The father of two had six gunshot wounds to his head, face, abdomen, hands and thighs.
Patrick Hutch is accused of being the man dressed as a woman who was allegedly part of a ‘team of six’ that carried out the shooting in Drumcondra.
The 25-year-old from Champions Avenue in Dublin’s north inner-city has pleaded not guilty to murder and not guilty to unlawful possession of three AK47 rifles.
Ms Christie said: ‘There was a fella coming by and I turned to say “hi” and I said, “Do you think that’s a woman. It’s not, it’s a man dressed up as a woman” and I was laughing. I thought they were going in to do something funny in the weigh-in room.’
She said the older man in a flat cap was ‘shaking’ and ‘seemed petrified’. The man dressed as a woman was looking around and she thought he was ‘expecting somebody to be there’.
Michael O’Higgins SC, for the accused, asked if she had been asked to attend an identification parade and she said no.
The dead man’s parents Sadie and James were in court to hear witness Paul Spencer tell that the owner of the MGM gym, Daniel Kinahan, was there and that people believed men dressed in tactical outfits with guns were gardaí until someone was shot.
He said he heard a man saying: ‘It’s okay the ERU [Garda unit] are here,’ and that he felt relieved. Mr Spencer was ‘convinced’ the men in the helmets were gardaí and people in the room started to stand up.