Brother and sister get life for Hutch murder
A BROTHER and sister, along with another man, have been jailed for life after being found guilty of the ‘deliberate and callous murder’ of Gareth Hutch two years ago.
The three-judge Special Criminal Court found that Jonathan Keogh, 33, fired the fatal shots that killed Mr Hutch, 36, in a ‘cold-blooded manner’ and ‘had a hand in almost every aspect’ of the planning of the murder.
The non-jury court also found that Thomas Fox, 31, made a ‘probable’ contribution to Mr Hutch’s murder, was a subordinate of Jonathan Keogh and acted under his general influence and direction.
Keogh’s sister, mother-of-five Regina Keogh, 41, ‘colluded’ with her brother to cause serious injury to Mr Hutch and was guilty of murder due to her involvement with her brother’s affairs, the judges also found.
Gunman Jonathan Keogh interrupted his sentencing hearing and shouted ‘f ****** b ***** ds, rats’ as the impact statement of their victim’s mother was read to the court.
Delivering the lengthy judgments following a nine-week trial which ended in July, presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that the court accepted the prosecution’s case that a considerable amount of planning and coordination had gone into this killing.
‘All those that are involved in planning are guilty of the crime of murder,’ he added.
Mr Hutch, nephew of Gerry ‘the Monk’ Hutch, was shot dead as he was getting into his car outside Avondale House flats in North Cumberland Street, Dublin, on the morning of May 24, 2016 in what the court said was not a ‘spontaneous or reactive killing’.
He died from four gunshot injuries: two to the back of the neck, one to the lower back and one to the right of the upper chest.
Fox with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1, Regina Keogh from Avondale House, Cumberland Street North, Dublin 1, and her brother Jonathan Keogh of Gloucester Place, Dublin 1, had all denied murdering Mr Hutch.
Fox was also convicted of unlawfully possessing a Makarov 9mm handgun on May 23, 2016 at the same place. He was sentenced to six years in prison to be served concurrently alongside his mandatory life sentence.
It was the State’s case that Jonathan Keogh threatened to kill Mr Hutch the evening before the shooting, that Thomas Fox and Regina Keogh were instrumental in planning the murder, and Jonathan Keogh and another – Mr AB, who is not before the court – were the shooters.
Judge Hunt, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Michael Walsh, spent eight hours over two days reviewing the evidence that led to the guilty verdicts from the court.
There was a heavy presence from the Garda Public Order Unit in the court for the delivery of yesterday’s verdicts.
The three defendants left the court for 15 minutes before returning to be sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment, backdated to when they each first went into custody.
The court heard that Jonathan Keogh has 22 previous convictions, including possession of an explosive substance, while Fox has 106 previous convictions mainly for road traffic offences.
A victim impact statement from Vera Hutch, mother of Gareth Hutch, was read our in the court yesterday afternoon by Garda Eoin Treacy.
In the statement Mrs Hutch said her world had been changed forever since the death of her son. ‘I can’t sleep most nights without nightmares of the horrific morning on May 24, 2016,’ she said.
She said the pain her family has suffered is ‘unbearable’ and they will never get over it.
Jonathan Keogh interrupted Garda Treacy as he was reading the victim impact statement,
He died from four gunshot injuries ‘What about all the other families?’
imprisonment, the judge said it was obvious to the court that the defendant had a lower-level of culpability than Jonathan Keogh and was a ‘follower’ of his.
Referring to Regina Keogh, Mr Justice Hunt said a mandatory life sentence is a ‘blunt instrument’ and the court had no choice but to impose this on her.
‘I sometimes wonder whether it is just to treat all [defendants] the same but we don’t make the law, we simply apply it,’ the judge remarked.
The judge said Regina Keogh was in a very ‘unfortunate’ position to receive the same sentence as everyone else and she clearly led a blameless life as well as being a good friend to key prosecution witness Mary McDonnell.
However, he said she had done ‘very bad things’ and it was ‘easy’ to be convicted of murder in the way the offence is defined in this country. ‘All it takes is one contribution and that’s enough. Hers is a sad illustration of that,’ the judge added.
Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, speaking after the sentencing outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin yesterday, said gardai took no satisfaction from what happened in court.
‘We have a mother of five children convicted. Gardaí take no satisfaction from something like that,’ he said.
‘We have sent out this message previously: you cannot get involved with these feuds even on the periphery and I think the court came out very strongly about that today.’
Assistant Commissioner Leahy said the investigation was not over.