Jonathan Dowdall serving four years for helping gang commit Regency murder

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

Jonathan Dowdall was serving four years in prison for helping a criminal gang commit the murder of David Byrne, the report said. A murder charge against Dowdall had been dropped.

The former Sinn Féin councillor gave evidence at the Special Criminal Court in the trial of Gerard Hutch, who was accused of murdering Byrne at the Regency Hotel in February 2016. Hutch pleaded not guilty. The proceedings were reported on 14 December 2022.

Dowdall said he had not been involved in the murder and described the connection between his family and a hotel room used by a gunman as a set-up. He said he had decided to speak to gardaí and believed the murder charge against him would be dropped when he told them the truth.

He alleged that Hutch put a massive amount of pressure on him after he was granted bail, including telling him to make himself available to Hutch’s solicitor. Dowdall said his bail conditions prohibited him from associating with members of the Hutch family.

Defence counsel Brendan Grehan suggested that Patsy Hutch, rather than Gerard Hutch, had collected the hotel room keycard from Dowdall and his father. Dowdall maintained that Gerard Hutch got the card.

Presiding judge Ms Justice Tara Burns warned against recording the proceedings after prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane said footage from an overflow court had circulated online. Dowdall’s cross-examination was due to continue the following day.