The Supreme Court has dismissed Jason Bonney’s appeal against his conviction arising from the 2016 Regency Hotel murder in Dublin, leaving his eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence in place.
Bonney was convicted by the Special Criminal Court in April 2023 of participating in or contributing to the activity of a criminal organisation. The prosecution case was that he provided access to and drove a black BMW X5 used as part of the escape following the fatal shooting of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
The Special Criminal Court found beyond reasonable doubt that Bonney was the sole driver of the BMW throughout the relevant period. It sentenced him to eight-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in May 2023.
His Supreme Court appeal centred on defence evidence and the statutory rules governing alibis and prosecution rebuttal evidence. One defence witness, Peter Tyrell, said he saw Bonney’s father, Willie Bonney, driving the BMW shortly after the attack. Another witness, Julie McGlynn, gave evidence placing Jason Bonney elsewhere around the relevant time.
Ms Justice Niamh Hyland held that Tyrell’s evidence had been wrongly classified as "evidence in support of an alibi". The statutory definition requires evidence positively placing an accused at another location in a way that makes presence at the crime scene unlikely or impossible. Tyrell’s evidence concerned Willie Bonney’s location, not Jason Bonney’s.
However, the Supreme Court held that this did not justify overturning the conviction. Evidence from prosecution witness Paul Byrne was properly admissible as rebuttal evidence to McGlynn’s alibi evidence, and the defence had not objected to its admission at trial.
The court also upheld the refusal to allow new evidential arguments to be raised for the first time on appeal. It found that, even without Byrne’s evidence, the Special Criminal Court had independently rejected the defence witnesses and was satisfied of Bonney’s guilt on the wider circumstantial evidence.
The appeal was dismissed and the Court of Appeal order affirmed.