DOWD AND OUT
»»44-year-old willing to testify as key witness in murder trial »»Ex-politician’s life ‘over’ as he’s set to be given a new identity
JONATHAN Dowdall’s life
“is over” after giving a statement to gardai implicating others in the Regency Hotel attack, a court heard yesterday.
The former Sinn Fein councillor has made himself available to be a witness in the trial of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, who is accused of the murder of David Byrne on February 5, 2016.
The 44-year-old, currently under Garda protection along with his family, will never live in Ireland again and is under assessment for witness protection.
Amid huge security, Dowdall and his father Patrick, 65, were before Mr Justice Tony Hunt at the non-jury Special Criminal Court for a sentencing hearing yesterday.
The pair, of Navan Road, Cabra, North Dublin, last week pleaded guilty to facilitating the murder of Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016 as part of the Hutch-kinahan feud.
They did this by making a room available for a criminal organisation or its members the night beforehand.
Ahead of the hearing, every person who entered the courtroom had to give ID and have their names taken before being granted access.
Outside heavily armed gardai patrolled the area and manned the entrances and exits.
Byrne’s mother Sadie and other family members were present for the hearing.
Plain clothes gardai – wearing earpiece communication devices – were dotted around the chamber.
The father and son entered and were flanked by two plain-clothes officers.
They took their seats in the dock and watched the proceedings intently, with Jonathan Dowdall often putting his head down. The former politician had been accused of murder but that charge has been dropped.
Det Sgt Patrick O’toole took to the stand and agreed with Senior Counsel defence Michael O’higgins that in November last year the accused made it clear he wanted to speak to gardai.
Dowdall was in prison custody serving a jail sentence at the time but when that expired in April, he was handed bail on the charge he was facing in relation to the Regency attack.
He was interviewed a “short” period after that and there was another meeting also before cops checked out what he said and the information he supplied. Det Sgt O’toole said he believed Dowdall “was sincere and genuine” and a formal statement was taken last week.
The court further heard he is now available for the forthcoming trial as a witness.
Mr O’higgins said: “He has implicated other persons and that is potentially of interest to the prosecution.”
But this has had “very dark consequences” for the pair, with father and son, along with family members under Garda protection, with an assessment establishing the risk against them is “severe”.
The younger Dowdall is also being assessed for the Witness Protection Programme, in which someone is given a new identity and moved abroad.
Mr O’higgins claimed due to the circumstances of the case, a suspended sentence could be appropriate.
He said: “He has made himself available as a witness which means his life is over. No injustice is done by giving him a suspended sentence.”
The court heard while Jonathan Dowdall knew the Hutch family from the age of 15, he was not a member of any criminal organisation.
The prosecution gave details of the his offences in relation to the Regency attack.
Senior Counsel for the State Sean Gillane told how room 2104 of the Regency Hotel was booked using Patrick Dowdall’s credit card.
He later claimed to gardai he cancelled the room but the court heard CCTV showed him arriving on February 4, 2016 – the day before the murder, being given two key cards and then directions to the room.
He went there for a short time before leaving and meeting his son Jonathan. The key cards were then passed on.
The room was used by Kevin Murray, who died of motor neurone disease in 2017.
Known as “flat cap” he was seen on CCTV approaching and entering the room.
Murray, from Strabane, Co Tyrone, was a known dissident republican and part of the murder team the following day when the attack happened at the “Clash of the Clans” boxing weigh-in.
One theory regarding Murray was he was used so that the garda investigation may be “misdirected in a paramilitary direction”.
On the morning of the shooting, Murray left the hotel room with a holdall bag and was picked up by taxi and went into the city.
The boxing event was scheduled to
start at 2pm. At 2.20pm a Ford Transit van pulled up at the hotel and Murray and a man dressed as woman emerged some time after and went into the hotel.
Det Sgt O’toole said a boxer was having his weigh-in completed when a number of shots were fired.
People were running in panic towards the larger function room and these two individuals “gave chase” towards those who were fleeing.
At 2.30pm, the same silver Ford transit van pulled up in front of the hotel and three individuals dressed as gardai armed with assault rifles went into the hotel. They discharged their guns as they ran inside.
Byrne ran from the suite area to the reception where he was shot by two of the gunmen.
The silver van carrying the assailants then travelled to the nearby Charlemont estate, where it was burned out.
Mr Gillane said that it was adjacent to St Vincent’s GAA club where a number of the men made their escape and an investigation immediately commenced.
Det Sgt O’toole agreed that officers had particular knowledge of the Hutch criminal organisation and their “strong inter-generational family bonds”.
The court heard Jonathan and Patrick Dowdall have previous convictions for false imprisonment, threatening to kill and causing serious harm from January 2015.
Former Sinn Fein Dublin city councillor Jonathan had spent most of his life in the north inner city.
His mother-in-law was “an intergenerational or third generation market trader” and had a stall.
Det Sgt O’toole agreed he was always hard working and ran a electrician company from 2007 which was very successful. He was wellregarded as an employer.
It had provided services for banks, security companies and some Government departments.
The court heard Dowdall took loans from the Hutch family and that his mother borrowed money for stock in 2007 but was not in a position to repay it.
Mr O’higgins said sometimes members of the
Hutch family wanted to purchase things online such as holidays.
He explained: “It was not unusual for the Dowdalls to pay these sums and they would be reimbursed. That would give a fair summary of the relationship that existed between them.”
But Det Sgt O’toole agreed Dowdall was not part of any criminal organisation.
When he was interviewed, the court heard he said he had volunteered to travel with Patsy Hutch to Spain in 2015 when his son Gary Hutch was killed.
Michael Bowman SC, for Patrick Dowdall, also asked the court to consider giving his client a suspended sentence given the exceptional circumstances he now finds himself in.
The Dowdalls will be sentenced on October 17.