Jonathan Dowdall denies using bomb timers as bargaining tool

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

Jonathan Dowdall denied using a promise of bomb timers to secure dissident republicans’ mediation in the Hutch-Kinahan feud at the Special Criminal Court, reported on 20 December 2022.

Under cross-examination on 20 December 2022, Dowdall rejected the suggestion that he used bomb timers as a bargaining tool, saying they did not exist. Defence counsel Brendan Grehan challenged Dowdall’s account of recorded conversations concerning mediation and alleged violence; Dowdall described the violent references as hypothetical and said they never happened.

The report said the defence played further excerpts from secret Garda recordings of conversations between Dowdall and Gerard Hutch during an alleged journey to a meeting in Strabane, Co Tyrone, on 7 March 2016. The State’s case was that Hutch had asked Dowdall to arrange a meeting with republican contacts to mediate in the feud.