Gerard Hutch trial: Secret recordings can be used in court

Gerard Hutch, 59, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne

An Irish court has ruled that secret recordings of conversations between Gerard Hutch and a former Sinn Féin councillor are admissible evidence in a murder trial.

Mr Hutch has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering David Byrne in Dublin during a 2016 boxing weigh-in.

He and Jonathan Dowdall were recorded on a journey to Northern Ireland.

Defence lawyers argued that the recordings should not be used because they were made outside the Irish state.

They claimed that the surveillance was illegal because eight of the 10 tapes had been recorded in Northern Ireland.

The court acknowledged the surveillance was unlawful but said that the gardaí (Irish police) who had gathered the evidence had acted in good faith.

Gardaí had secretly bugged Dowdall's vehicle.

Mr Hutch, also known as "the Monk", and Dowdall were driving to Strabane in County Tyrone when the recordings were made.

Dowdall, 33, is serving a four-year sentence for facilitating the murder.

Jonathan Dowdall is a former Sinn Féin councillor

Mr Hutch's lawyers said that because the vehicle the pair was travelling in was in Northern Ireland from 15:10 to 22:50 on 7 May 2016 - and so outside the Republic of Ireland - the surveillance tapes should not be used as evidence.

On Friday the non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin gave its verdict on the admissibility of the evidence.

The three judges said that while the evidence was gathered unlawfully and the breach was of significance, they were satisfied that the relevant officers of the Garda's national surveillance unit had acted in good faith and the illegality was unknown to them.

They ruled that the conversation ought to be admitted in interests of justice.

The presiding judge Ms Justice Tara Burns said Dowdall and Mr Hutch were clearly discussing criminal behaviour and planning a combative strategy for the Hutch family.

But she added the court had not determined that any of that conversation about criminality related to the charge Mr Hutch faces.

The judges in the Special Criminal Court act as both judges and jurors.

David Byrne was murdered during a boxing weigh-in event at Dublin's Regency Hotel in 2016

The court was previously told that the murder of Mr Byrne, 33, was carried out as part of a feud between the Hutch and Kinahan crime gangs.

Five men, three disguised as armed police in tactical clothing and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, carried out the attack.

The court has heard Mr Hutch wanted to meet the Kinahans to arrange a ceasefire and have dissident republicans mediate.

Dowdall was due to stand trial for Mr Byrne's murder alongside Mr Hutch.

But he pleaded guilty in advance of the trial to a lesser charge of facilitating the Hutch gang by making a hotel room available ahead of the murder.

The former councillor is being assessed for the witness protection programme after agreeing to testify against Mr Hutch.

Mr Hutch's two co-accused, Paul Murphy, 61, of Cherry Avenue in Swords, County Dublin, and Jason Bonney, 50, of Drumnigh Wood in Portmarnock, County Dublin, pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of Mr Byrne by providing vehicles.