Regency shooting's 'getaway drivers' and Hutch family friends receive combined 17-year jail sentence

• Author: Alison O'Riordan
• Published date: 12 May 2023
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

Presiding judge Ms Justice Tara Burns said today that the two convicted men - Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney- had provided "intentional and organised assistance to the Hutch organisation", which she called significant. She said the court could not find that either of the two defendants knew exactly what was to happen but they knew a "serious criminal event was planned" involving six men that needed to be removed from the scene

Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin was jailed for nine years and his co-accused Jason Bonney (52), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 was sentenced to eight-and-half-years in prison. Last month following the 52-day trial at the Special Criminal Court, taxi driver Paul Murphy and builder Jason Bonney were found guilty at the Special Criminal Court of facilitating the killing of Mr Byrne, a Kinahan gang member, by acting as getaway drivers in a shooting "orchestrated" by the rival Hutch criminal organisation.

The pair had been at the gang's "centre of operations" at Buckingham Village in the north inner city from where the hit team left on February 5 2016 to travel to the Regency hotel and carry out the attack. Delivering judgement at the non-jury court on April 17, the three judges found that Bonney was the sole driver of a BMW X5 throughout that day and was driving the jeep at Bella Street in the north inner city and at St Vincent's GAA car park when one of the gunmen, dissident republican Kevin Murray, known as "Flat Cap", got into his jeep after the Regency attack. Mr Murray died from motor neurone disease in 2017 before he could be brought to trial.

In its judgement the court also found that Murphy had used his silver Avensis taxi to pick up one of the gunmen at St Vincent's car park. Murphy had told gardai that he was working as a taxi driver on the afternoon of the Regency attack and that receipts in the taxi would support this.

Having regard to Murphy's movements on the day the Special Criminal Court was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that at the very least the fare receipts were "inaccurate" and did not establish that Murphy was engaged on these fares at the times asserted, if at all. The prosecution's case against the two convicted men was that they were both present in Bella Street on the morning of February 5, that they had travelled in convoy with another four cars to St Vincent's GAA club from Donnycarney Church car park, and after the Regency attack they each drove one of the hitmen from St...