Jonathan Dowdall jailed for facilitating Regency murder

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

Jonathan Dowdall was jailed for four years by the Special Criminal Court for facilitating the murder of David Byrne. The proceedings were reported on 5 December 2022.

The former Dublin councillor pleaded guilty before trial to facilitating the Hutch gang by making a hotel room available ahead of Byrne’s murder at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin 9. The report said Dowdall was expected to testify against Gerard Hutch, who was charged with Byrne’s murder.

In a hearing on 5 December 2022, Detective Sergeant Patrick O’Toole denied that he had discussed getting the murder charge dropped with Dowdall. He also denied soft-pedalling evidence at Dowdall’s sentence hearing, saying the Special Criminal Court had sentenced him in accordance with the facts.

O’Toole said he did not believe Dowdall knew the room would be used as part of the murder plan when it was booked. He also agreed that he had accepted at the sentence hearing that Dowdall was not a member of a criminal organisation.