Regency trial: The story so far

Former Sinn Féin councillor, Jonathan Dowdall, is expected to take to the stand this week in the trial of three men accused of murdering Kinahan gang member, David Byrne.

Gerard Hutch (59), last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3 denies killing the 33 year-old during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall on February 5, 2016.

His two co-accused - Paul Murphy (61) from Swords and Jason Bonney (50), of Portmarnock are also standing trial alongside Mr Hutch.

They have both pleaded not guilty to participating in the murder by providing access to individual motor vehicles.

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In October, Jonathan Dowdall was jailed after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of facilitating the killing. Having agreed to testify for the state, he is now being assessed for the Witness Protection Programme.

Last week the three-judge Special Criminal Court heard recordings of conversations between Mr Dowdall and Mr Hutch where they discussed the attack, on an alleged trip up north in March 2016 to meet with Republicans.

The ten-hours of audio was captured after members of the National Surveillance Unit bugged Mr Dowdall’s Toyota Land Cruiser. Senior Counsel for the defence, Brendan Grehan, argues the tapes should not be entered into evidence, as the majority of the recordings were made when the vehicle was outside the jurisdiction. Legal argument is continuing this week with presiding judge, Ms Justice Tara Burns, set to rule on the tapes’ admissibility.

In this episode of In The News, we speak to court reporter, Alison O’Riordan, about the content of the recordings which covered everything from politics, to celebrities to IRA republicans and the Kinahan cartel.

With the trial already running for six weeks and with many more to come, you can catch up on everything you need to know about the proceedings so far.

Presented by Aideen Finnegan.