Attack: Derek Hutch was slashed before prison officers could intervene
A JAILHOUSE knife attack on Derek ‘Del Boy’ Hutch was carried out on the back of a €10k bounty believed to be originating from Spain.
Sources have confirmed to The Sunday World that word spread amongst inmates in the prison ahead of the exercise yard attack a bounty had been offered for Del Boy to be stabbed but not killed.
Hutch was set on by two Jamie and Leon Griffin in the A-wing exercise yard in Mountjoy prison on Friday of last week with the brothers produced concealed ‘shivs’ before pouncing on him at approximately 3pm.
“Word had gone around that €10k would be coming from Spain to anyone who gave him a stripe,” a source told The Star.
“The two lads who went after him are the same ones who gave Wayne Bradley an awful beating in the yard before Christmas.
“Word in the prison was that it was to be a stripe and nothing more … he was to be slashed but not killed.
“It’s being viewed as a warning that they could get him at any time so to put any thoughts of revenge for his brother Gary’s murder out of his head.”
Del Boy’s brother Gary was gunned down on the Costa Del Sol two weeks in a hit believed to have been carried out on the orders of the Kinahan drug cartel. Sources said both Griffin brothers were moved to other prisons and subjected to P19 disciplinary proceedings in the wake of the attack.
“The exercise yard is monitored by CCTV,” a source told The Sunday World.
“The brothers moved in on Hutch and one can be seen passing a shiv to the other in the lead-up to the incident.
“Hutch received defensive slash wound to his arms before managing to flee for his life.”
It’s understood Jamie Griffin was moved to Wheatfield where he is now the subject of disciplinary sanctions. He has had all visits, phone-calls and privileges withdrawn for a period of 56 days.
His brother Leon has been moved to Castlerea Prison where he is also the subject of similar disciplinary sanctions.
A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service confirmed that three prison officers intervened with disregard for their own safety as the attack unfurled. The trio threw themselves between the Griffins and Hutch before disarming the pair.
In the wake of the attack Del Boy was moved to top security Portlaoise while one of his attackers was moved to Wheatfirld Prison and the other to Castlerea.
Jamie Griffin was jailed in March for two years after he pleaded guilty to a violent attack in Ladbrokes bookies in Killinarden, Tallaght, on December 13, 2012. Dublin Circuit Court heard that Griffin was part of a three-man gang who produced a blade and stabbed one customer in the Tallaght bookies and brutally assaulted another man there.
Griffin, who is already serving a six-year sentence on another charge, has 13 previous convictions including violent disorder and possession of illicit drugs. The court heard that gardai were called to the scene and both injured men were transferred to Tallaght Hospital. One man had multiple stab wounds and the other a broken hand.
Jamie and his violent brother Leon (25) were involved in a savage assault on high-profile criminal Wayne Bradley (below left) in an exercise yard in Mountjoy Prison on the afternoon of December 22 last.
The attack left Bradley hospitalised for almost two weeks over the Christmas period.
The two south inner city brothers were disciplined by prison bosses after the attack that led to Finglas mobster Bradley (35) being moved to Ireland's highest security prison in Portlaoise for his own protection after he was eventually discharged from the Mater Hospital in mid January.
Associates of the Griffins are suspected of involvement in the gun murder of Declan O'Reilly in September, 2012 while Leon Griffin was involved in a brutal assault on murder victim Michael Kelly in a south inner city pub in August, 2012, less than a year before he was shot dead at a Luas Line.
Leon, who was a top target for gardai from Kevin Street Station, has been warned on a number of occasions about an active threat against his life. He was previously jailed in July, 2008 for threatening a heavily-pregnant woman with a 12-inch blade as he attempted to steal her wallet as well as other robbery charges.
Last October, Leon was jailed for five weeks for fighting in the Great Hall of the Criminal Courts of Justice in September, 2013, as part of a bitter inner city gang feud.