Regency getaway driver now 'a shell of a man' as health deteriorates in prison

Convicted Regency Hotel getaway driver Jason Bonney is struggling with ill health in prison and is now a “shell of a man”.

That is the description given to this paper by Bonney’s uncle Matthew, who visited him in jail and said his nephew – who was convicted last year by the Special Criminal Court of being one of the getaway drivers for the Hutch mob in the infamous Regency Hotel shooting – is not doing well behind bars.

Separate to Matthew’s claims, a source confirmed that Bonney was taken out of prison to hospital just before Christmas, and his health is now being regularly monitored.

Bonney, 52, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison after he was convicted of being the getaway driver that helped hitman Kevin “Flat Cap” Murray escape following the horrific gangland murder of Kinahan cartel associate David Byrne on February 5, 2016.

Now Bonney’s uncle, who insists his nephew is innocent, says he visited him in Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison, and was shocked to see how bad his health has deteriorated. “He’s not doing well at all. He should be in hospital and I know the prison service wanted him to go [back] in but he didn’t want to be chained to a bed,” he said.

“His health is not good. He looks like a skeleton. He’s a shell of a man, and you can’t understand him.” Bonney, whose case was held alongside the murder trial of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, had called two witnesses to try and back his now unfounded claim that his father Willie, who died in 2019, was the man driving the BMW X5 on the day of the Regency shooting, and not him.

In scathing remarks in her judgement, Ms Justice Tara Burns said the court had been lied to in the “most malevolent manner” by Bonney, who had wrongly tried to implicate his father.

But Jason’s uncle Matthew insists that his nephew is telling the truth – and claims that his own brother once confessed to him that he was the driver on the day of the shooting.

Jason Bonney arriving at the Special Criminal Court on Monday, April 17 2023

Those claims have not been backed up in accepted evidence and have been previously condemned as lies by the late William Bonney’s daughters.

However, Matthew says Jason intends to launch an appeal against his conviction.

“He’s changed solicitors for an appeal. Whether he gets an appeal I don’t know,” he insisted.

“He had no chance of getting off in the Special Criminal Court – 96 per cent of people are convicted.

“Originally those courts were brought in for terrorists. Jason is not a terrorist and he’s no real criminal record.”

Matthew also confirmed that Jason always knew he was in the crosshairs of the Kinahan cartel – who had him on their radar since 2017.

“Yes, he knew he was a target, but he couldn’t understand why,” Matthew claimed. In her judgement, Ms Justice Burnshad said: “A dead father has been implicated in the Regency by his son’s witnesses.

“That anybody thought that these lies would be accepted by the court is quite frankly amazing.”

Ms Justice Burns said the evidence of one of Bonney’s witnesses – Peter Tyrell – had to be treated with “scepticism”.

Mr Tyrell had told the trial that he saw Willie Bonney driving up behind him at speed on the Artane roundabout mere minutes after the Regency shooting.

But Ms Justice Burns said that it seemed “bizarre” that Mr Tyrell would go to Jason Bonney’s solicitor rather than ask gardai to see the footage.

The judge also said Mr Tyrell is in conflict with other evidence presented in the trial and he seems to be “quite incorrect that he regularly saw William Bonney driving this BMW jeep” in light of the fact that Jason Bonney himself said that he was the only person driving it from 2009 onwards.

Meanwhile, Julie McGlynn, who said she had known Jason Bonney for over 30 years, claimed that she saw him at her mother’s home in Donaghmede on February 5, 2016.

Ms McGlynn said she saw Jason Bonney go across the road to the house that was being renovated – and she saw Willie Bonney getting into the BMW X5 and driving off.

The witness was shown pictures of the BMW X5 and said that it “definitely” looked like the jeep, citing the fact that she said her sister had the same jeep.

However, Ms Justice Burns said her evidence too had to be treated with scepticism “in circumstances where she applied for planning permission for a plot of land owned by Jason Bonney for the purpose of building a house for herself.”

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