Bărbatul condamnat pe viață pentru uciderea ‘fără sens și crudă’ a lui Gareth Hutch în 2016   

A MAN HAS been given a mandatory life sentence in prison after he was convicted of the murder of Gareth Hutch in the Special Criminal Court.
Thomas ‘Nicky’ McConnell is the fourth person to be convicted of Hutch’s murder in May 2016. His sentence has been backdated to 20 July 2020, when he was first taken into custody by Turkish authorities before being then extradited to Ireland.
McConnell (39) of Sillogue Gardens, Ballymun, Dublin 11 had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gareth Hutch (36) on 24 May 2016 at Avondale House, North Cumberland Street, Dublin 1. 
Hutch, the nephew of Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch, was followed home and shot dead. McConnell was convicted of the ambush by the Special Criminal Court last month.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens said that the evidence showed, beyond reasonable doubt, that McConnell was the second assassin along Jonathan Keogh, who followed Hutch home and shot him dead.
Mr Justice Owens sentenced him to the mandatory term of life imprisonment in Dublin this morning.
When passing judgement the court found that Keogh’s gun discharged a number of bullets at close range that caused the injuries which killed Hutch. McConnell’s gun was later found to have the safety catch on and did not fire any rounds during the murder.
The court found that even if McConnell deliberately left the safety catch on, his other actions in preparation for the shooting showed that he was part of a common design with Keogh and others to commit murder and his actions were intended to result in Hutch’s death.
The mother of Gareth Hutch told the Special Criminal Court that her son’s murder in an ambush outside his home over eight years ago was “a violent and callous crime with no value or thought given for a life”.
Vera Hutch’s victim impact statement was read out at the sentencing hearing this morning. She said her son was “senselessly and cruelly taken” from her and her family, tearing her life apart and changing their world “forever”.
The statement was read to the court by Detective Garda Liam Lee. She said she had the “privilege and honour of being Gareth’s mother for over 35 years”.
“Standing here in front of you today with my life torn apart, our world changed forever. Losing Gareth has caused my heart and all our families hearts to be broken, nothing can ever repair the emptiness that his death has caused,” she said.
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At today’s sitting of the non-jury court, Lee told prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy SC that McConnell has 105 previous convictions including those for assault, threatening to kill and causing serious harm as well as possession of knives.
In November 2018 the Special Criminal Court found Regina Keogh (47) of Cumberland St North, Dublin 1, Jonathan Keogh (39) with an address at Gloucester Place, Dublin 1 and Thomas Fox (32) with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1 guilty of the murder of Hutch.
McConnell’s trial began in 2023 but was postponed for 16 months, firstly wh