Jonathan Dowdall appeals murder trial at Supreme Court

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Jonathan Dowdall and Gerard Hutch were charged with the murder of David Byne on 5 February 2016, arising from the Regency Hotel attack. The proceedings were reported on 12 May 2022.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear their appeals against a High Court decision refusing to prevent their trials before the non-jury Special Criminal Court. Mr Justice Anthony Barr had ruled that there was no legal basis to prevent the Director of Public Prosecutions from certifying that the murder trials should be held there.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeals directly, finding that they raised a matter of public importance and that exceptional circumstances justified bypassing the Court of Appeal. No hearing date had been fixed.