Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch has been warned that his life in danger after walking free from the Special Criminal Court yesterday.
The 60-year-old was yesterday acquitted of the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.
After considering the evidence for 12 weeks, the three-judge panel ruled that the testimony of State-turned witness Jonathan Dowdall was not enough to convict.
They noted that the State had failed to bring forward enough independent evidence to stand up Mr. Dowdall’s grave allegations.
In the absence of corroboration evidence, the court was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Gerry Hutch was one of the hitmen involved in the attack and he was acquitted.
He walked free from the courthouse a short time later, with Gardaí later warning him that his life is in danger.
Nicola Tallant is Investigations Editor with the Sunday World:
"There's still a bounty on his head, and you can be guaranteed that the Kinahan organisation would see it as a huge coup if they could get near him.
"So, you know, he will have to be very careful himself of his own security going forward.
"But the fact of the matter is, he left that court yesterday, declared innocent of murder."
Before the Gerry Hutch verdict was read out yesterday, two other men were found guilty of facilitating the murder of David Byrne through the provision of getaway vehicles.
Paul Murphy, of Cherry Avenue in Swords and Jason Bonney, of Drumnigh Wood in Portmarnock, were found guilty of assisting with the getaway and were remanded in custody ahead of their sentence hearing in May.
