"Revealed: Jerry 'Monk's' Hutch's European real estate empire.

Sources told the Sunday World that Gerry Hatch, known as 'Monk Hatch', never showed up at the €350,000 Spanish apartment he bought in Spain in 2020. Instead, the luxury apartment remains empty while Gerry, 60, has spent 18 months in custody awaiting trial for the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.

"I've never seen him in this building," said a ground-floor business owner to whom Sunday World showed a photo of Hatch. "I remember an Irishman showing up here once, but I've never seen the man in the picture. It's a private building. We only have seven apartments above, so I would have seen him if he was here." The building in which Hatch purchased the penthouse is just a''100 meters from the local police station.

Some months after purchasing the apartment, Hatch reportedly also purchased an underground parking space in a shared garage. Information about Hatch's ownership of a loft apartment in Fuengirola came to light two weeks after we reported that he had separately set up his business headquarters in Lanzarote, from where he can manage his alleged €12 million property interests. While in prison custody, Hatch registered a warehouse at No. 11 Timple Calle Timple Calle in Las Tias Palmas on Lanzarote as the headquarters of his Spanish real estate company.

Hatch's empire is believed to include his home in Clontarf, valued at around €1 million, an extensive real estate portfolio in Turkey in Izmir and Kusadasi worth €2 million, several apartment complexes in Bulgaria and Hungary and a property in London worth €2.5 million. Police allege that Hatch built these properties with profits from robbing Marino's store and attacks on Brinks Allied - a charge Hatch has always denied. He claims he made his fortune on compensation payments and then invested the funds in the market''real estate.

When Hatch fled to Lanzarote after the murder of David Byrne in February 2016, he turned to real estate again. He listed the primary function of his business, which effectively allowed him to register as a sole trader, as "managing real estate on a pay-as-you-go or contractual basis." This business allowed Hatch to obtain a tax ID - which also serves as a Spanish VAT number - giving him the status of a legitimate businessman in the region. Hatch used that status when he fought extradition to Ireland on murder charges. He told an extradition hearing that he was not hiding from authorities while living in Spain and even paid taxes in his own name.

Although Hatch was expected to leave Ireland immediately''Following his acquittal on charges of David Byrne's murder, he has been spotted regularly in north Dublin since his release. Sources say that while Hatch still intends to leave Ireland, he is in no hurry to do so and is likely to leave at a time of his own choosing when 'the excitement over his acquittal has subsided'.