Three women were in the room during torture session

THERE were three women in the room when Jonathan Dowdall tied up a convicted fraudster, waterboarded him to the point he felt like he was dying and threatened to cut him up and feed him to dogs.

The women – one of whom filmed the three-hour ordeal – were in and out of the room throughout the ordeal. However, they will not face charges in relation to the video.

Detective Inspector William Hanrahan told the Special Criminal Court that gardaí searched the Dowdalls’ home on March 9, 2016 ‘in relation to another matter’ when they found a USB stick with the videos.

The victim, Alexander Hurley, was found and interviewed. He told gardaí how Jonathan Dowdall had put a BMW motorbike up for sale online and he had contacted him expressing interest in it. When he arrived at to meet him, he was greeted by Patrick Dowdall. He was pushed into the garage, backed into a swivel chair and bound with white cable ties around his chest and legs and told he was a ‘lying b ***** d from the sewer’. Jonathan Dowdall told him he was a ‘stupid dumb f*** to mess with the head of the IRA’.

In a victim-impact statement, Mr Hurley said Jonathan Dowdall ‘proceeded to torture me to the point of death’s door’.