Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Hutch crossed border 3 times after shooting’
Murder trial hears of jeep trips to the North Top Garda speaks out over record destruction
GERRY “The Monk” Hutch was driven over and back across the border by Jonathan Dowdall three times in just over a month after the killing of David Byrne, the Special Criminal Court has heard.
The Dublin court was told that on February 20, 2016 – two weeks after the killing – former Sinn Fein councillor Dowdall drove Mr Hutch across the border at the Carrickdale Hotel at 8.45am and back into the Republic at 10.51am.
Six-and-a-half hours later, the jeep drove back into Northern Ireland at the same place and stayed there for just over two-and-a-half hours.
On March 7, 2016, surveillance officers said Dowdall again drove 59-year-old Hutch, who denies he murdered Byrne, across the border at the Carrickdale Hotel at 3.17pm, crossing back at Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone, at 10.50pm.
Meanwhile, a senior Garda told the court she would “absolutely not” have signed off on the destruction of records from a tracker device deployed on Dowdall’s jeep if she had the “slightest inkling” that the material was required.
Asst Commissioner Orla Mcpartlin told the trial she has already started “tightening up” the policy document which covers the destruction of records.
TRACKER
Earlier, the court heard gardai had recovered records from a tracker device deployed on Dowdall’s jeep which were believed to have been destroyed.
The data was found on the third computer of seven that was also due to be destroyed in the coming weeks.
Prosecutor Sean Gillane told the three-judge court the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau had conducted a “fairly extensive” operation since last week in which a securely stored computer listed for destruction was examined.
He added: “In the course of the examination of that device, it appears that a working copy of the material in question was located.”
In reply, defence counsel Brendan Grehan said it appeared that “what was lost is now found”.
Mr Grehan told the court last Tuesday gardai destroyed records from a tracking device that had been placed on Dowdall’s Toyota Land Cruiser jeep.
Counsel said “disturbingly”, the notes were destroyed by gardai after his client was arrested and charged with murder.
Retired Detective Inspector Ciaran Hoey testified last Wednesday he carried out a review of all the data information held by the NSU in early 2020 to ensure they were in compliance with the Surveillance Act of 2009.
He said he did not believe the records would be used in the prosecution when he ordered their destruction.
Mr Grehan said he could not understand how Mr Hoey could “in good faith” have made a decision to have potentially relevant evidence destroyed.
Mr Hoey said
Asst Comm Mcpartlin “signed off ” on the destruction order on March 23 last. He added he didn’t make her aware the current trial was proceeding, nor the vehicle was related to Dowdall or Hutch. Asked by Mr Grehan if Asst Comm Mcpartlin should have been alerted that the records may be “pertinent” to the trial, Mr Hoey said she wasn’t as he did not think it was “pertinent”.
She said she attended the office of Mr Hoey on March 23 this year to authorise the destruction of the records in accordance with the Surveillance Act. She added Det Insp Hoey had presented her with a spreadsheet which showed the totality of items for 2016 and he had shown her nothing that required to be retained. Asked by Mr Gillane if she had any awareness that the data was concerned with this prosecution, Asst Comm Mcpartlin said she had no awareness that the vehicle or the data were connected to it.
In cross-examination, she said she “absolutely” would not have ordered the destruction of the records if she had the “slightest inkling” that material relating to this trial was required and would have ordered for it to be retained.
Earlier, Det Supt Eugene Lynch, the current head of the Garda NSU, told Mr Gillane he had instructed the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau on November 16 to engage in an assessment of whether “tracker data” could be recovered.
On November 19, members of the NSU examined seven computers which were down for destruction and “a working copy” of the data, which related to the jeep, was discovered on the third computer. Asked by Mr Grehan what he thought about records of the tracking device being destroyed, the witness said he would not destroy records unless he was fully satisfied that they would not be required.
Det Supt Lynch said the records had been destroyed off the master server and there was now a full set of records in electronic format belonging to the tracker device used in this case, which would show where the jeep was on February 20 in Northern Ireland.
Asked if the tracker had shown gardai in “real time” where the jeep was on February 20 and March 7, he added it provided information in “real time”.
[It appears that] what was lost is now found BRENDAN GREHAN DEFENCE COUNSEL