‘Mob boss’ Gerry Hutch runs away after failing to win seat in Irish election
A notorious gangland figure caused pandemonium when he appeared at the Dublin count centre at the end of his unsuccessful bid to be elected to the Dail.
Gerry Hutch is believed by police and Ireland’s Special Criminal Court to lead an international crime organisation, which is embroiled in a feud with the Kinahan gang that’s cost 18 lives so far.
Nicknamed ‘The Monk’, the 61-year-old got his moniker in the 1990s after a €3.8million bank heist, although he’s always denied being involved.
Mr Hutch, a Dubliner, announced his surprise candidature after arriving back in Ireland this month following his arrest in Spain in October as part of an international investigation into money laundering.
After paying a €100,000 bail, he registered his independent candidacy in the Dublin Central constituency, with his profession listed as ‘consultant’.
‘I made my money through property, through deals over the years’, he told Channel 4 News in a boxing gym he opened. ‘Property deals, buying and selling property.’
It had been anticipated that Mr Hutch would not attend the count centre when it had become clear he would not be elected, but he arrived unexpectedly just after three o’clock on Sunday.
His presence caused chaotic scenes as a huge media scrum assembled and followed him around the centre, while security staff struggled to keep control.
He finally stopped at railings placed around a vote counting station, which was not for the constituency in which he was running.
Dozens of reporters, photographers and camera operators jostled to get close and shouted questions.
He said: ‘There’s never a guard (member of the Garda) around when you need one.’
Asked why he thought so many people had voted for him, he replied ‘Because they are looking for change and if I got elected I would give them the change that they want. I would do what they want.’
Asked why he had attended the count centre, he replied: ‘What do you think? This is a joke, this is a circus.’
When asked if he would run again, he said: ‘I’ve been running all my life, I love running.’
Mr Hutch stayed in the count centre for just over half an hour before leaving, surrounded by security.
The alleged gangland boss ran a colourful campaign, releasing a video before the election, calling for more housing, more police, and less immigration.
He said: ‘They’re talking about extra [police] for Christmas. Christmas? Is Santy Clause arriving with something special for Christmas? What about the rest of the year?
‘If you’re going to put it there, put it there full time until the streets are clean and safe again for the Irish people.’
Despite starting Sunday morning with a commanding lead of 2,000 votes over Labour party candidate Marie Sherlock, his lead was whittled down throughout the day following a series of different counts.
This left Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik able to predict shortly after lunchtime that Ms Sherlock would ‘hold off’ the challenge of the independent candidate while the count was still progressing.
Shortly after Mr Hutch left the RDS, it was confirmed that Ms Sherlock had secured the final seat in the Dublin Central area.
When asked about her interaction with Mr Hutch, Ms Sherlock said: ‘He wished me well.
‘Obviously there’s 3,000 votes that he got, that is to be absolutely respected and it is a reflection of the frustration in the communities.
‘But it is a reflection of the vote that I also got.’
Last year, Mr Hutch was found not guilty of the murder of Kinahan gang member David Byrne during a boxing weigh-in at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in February 2016.
The court concluded that, although he was in control of the guns used in the shooting, that did not mean he was involved in the murder, which, the court accepted, the Hutch family was responsible for.
Byrne’s murder led to an escalation in the Hutch-Kinahan gang feud, resulting in armed police on the streets and Mr Hutch’s brother – Eddie Hutch Sr – being shot dead in his flat three days later.
The feud started in September 2015 with the murder of Gerry Hutch’s nephew, Gary, in Marbella, Spain, by members of the Kinahan gang.
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