Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch claims he hid behind pillar in pub to evade Kinahan assassination attempt
Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch also claims he evaded a second assassination attempt in the space of 24 hours - because he wasn't wearing glasses
Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch has spoken out about evading two assassination attempts by the Kinahan cartel in the space of 24 hours.
The convicted criminal, who is running for election as an Independent candidate in the Dublin Central constituency later this month, revealed that he hid behind the pillar of a pub in Lanzarote to avoid the first assassination attempt, which took place after the murder of his nephew, Gary.
And 24 hours later, 'The Monk' claims that Kinahan assassins came for him again but walked straight past him as he wasn't wearing glasses. Mr Hutch made the claims in an interview on the Sunday World's Crime World podcast, the first part of which was released on Sunday, in relation to incidents believed to have taken place around Christmas 2016.
In the interview, Mr Hutch claims that he received a phone call from a woman whom he says was working on behalf of Daniel Kinahan and whom he didn't know "that well", who asked Mr Hutch if he was going to Lanzarote over Christmas and if they could meet up over there.
Having told the woman, "probably, we'll see", Mr Hutch says he "bumped into her" in Lanzarote and "she set me up and walked me straight into a trap for two hitmen to kill me".
Elaborating on the first assassination attempt, Mr Hutch said: "So, we went into a new bar and I changed my top and got dressed up for the New Year's party. I was watching the door and I saw these two gunmen coming in. It's been reported I lashed out the back door, there was no back door in this pub. I stayed in the pub.
"I hid in the pub and they went into the toilet and came back out. The pub was chock-a-block – I just hid behind the pillar. I watched them. They passed by looking for me and they went into the toilet and then they came back out.
"I was afraid there would be someone standing outside as well, so I didn't want to walk out in case they had a gunman outside. So I let them walk past. I took a chance. But for them to do it in the pub? The pub was very full. To pull back your arm you'd nearly hit someone, to pull a gun out of your pocket you would hit someone, it was that packed. They were masked and had baseball caps. They had two guns."
Mr Hutch said that a gunman came looking for him again the day after the incident in the pub, but despite Mr Hutch walking towards him, he "didn't see me".
"I went bloody white. The blood went down to my feet. So, I just stood up, picked the bottle up and walked towards him rather than run away and as I got towards him he kept walking," Mr Hutch said.
"He didn't see me. No glasses on. So I just went the other way and left him. I got the video clippings later and could see him walking around looking for me."
The murder bids came just months after the cartel had killed his nephew Gary, 34, on Spain's Costa Del Sol – despite The Monk's effort to hammer out a peace deal. Gary Hutch had been a close ally of mob boss Daniel Kinahan, 46, but the pair fell out and The Monk's nephew tried to kill his former friend in Marbella in August 2014.
The Kinahans investigated the incident and concluded Gary and a close associate were behind the attack. Gary Hutch fled the area in fear of his life but it has now emerged that The Monk took part in a peace conference with him in early 2015.
The meeting happened in southern Spain and The Monk oversaw an agreement in which Daniel Kinahan and Gary Hutch shook hands. He then left the two men alone to sort out their differences. But whatever the two men discussed, Gary Hutch was shot dead by a Kinahan gunman as he ran for his life near Estepona in southern Spain in September 2015.
The Hutch mob was blamed for an attempted hit on Daniel Kinahan in west Dublin in November 2015 – which the cartel kingpin survived. The cartel then tried to murder The Monk in Lanzarote on New Year's Day 2016 – before the Hutch gang hit on a plan to wipe out their rivals.
They sent a hit team to the Regency on February 5, 2016 in a bid to kill Kinahan and other leaders. The gunmen – including three fake Garda ERU officers – missed Kinahan by seconds, but got David Byrne.
That murder led to a ferocious revenge onslaught by the Kinahans – and left 18 men dead. Gerry Hutch was later charged with the murder of David Byrne, but was acquitted by the non-jury Special Criminal Court last April.
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