Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch says Kinahan threat on his life is still in place amid election bid

Gerry “The Monk” Hutch has claimed the Garda warning about the Kinahan threat to his life is still in force.

The veteran gangland figure is still “taking precautions” over his personal safety.

The 61-year-old candidate was out and about in the North Dublin area yesterday putting up election posters.

READ MORE: Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch says he has been 'an unofficial politician' most of his life

READ MORE: Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch claims he hid behind pillar in pub to evade Kinahan assassination attempt

He told the Crime World podcast: “There’s no Gardaino gardai walking up Talbot Street. I remember as a kid, there’d be two guys standing at the GPO, and they were standing there as if they were holding that building up.

“You’d always bump into a guard on the street, and it makes the older people feel safe.

“They’re not safe anymore, they don’t feel safe. They don’t feel they can walk the streets.”

More than seven years since he went on the run after receiving a Garda Information Message in the aftermath of his brother Eddie’s death following the Regency Hotel attack, he is still mindful of security.

He told Crime World in a two-hour interview: “I have to take precautions, obviously, because, like, when I got the GIM off the guard several years back, I asked them, ‘Do you guys ever come back and tell people that these are no longer required?’

“And he said they do, but I haven’t heard anything else off them and that’s probably seven, eight years ago.

“I still take precautions, and you get immune to it and you get used to it, but at the same time, you could do without it.”

Hutch decided to run in the election after lobbying from his community. His candidacy was first mooted when he was in a crowd welcoming Kellie Harrington home after her Olympic win.

He told the Crime World podcast: “We have TDs at the moment, but we have no representatives.

“That’s what I’m hearing on the street off the people and they’ve asked me... and I said, ‘I’m retired, semi-retired, I’m an old man’.

“Then when Kellie Harrington was coming into town, all the TDs were down, all the councillors, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men having a great time.

“Loads of them were saying, this a f***ing disgrace, you should be up there on that stage with her Gerard and this and that.

“One thing led to another and [people were] pushing and pushing. And I said I’d consider it.”

Hutch, who is currently on bail for alleged money laundering offences in Spain, said people in the area are looking for “another Tony Gregory” before adding he “would never be able to walk in that man’s shoes in a thousand years”.

Hutch is up against a number of high-profile sitting TDs in Dublin Central, including Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald and Fine Gael’s Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe.

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