Courts

Packed courtroom falls silent as Jonathan Dowdall takes the stand in Regency murder trial

Gerard Hutch listens impassively as Dowdall gives his evidence

The interest in Mr Dowdall’s evidence was such that, despite dire weather warnings, many travelled for the hearing at the Courts of Criminal Justice, where armed gardai were in evidence inside and outside the building. Photograph: Damien Storan/PA Wire

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Mary Carolan
Mon Dec 12 2022 - 18:46

The moment in the Gerard Hutch trial many had been waiting for began about 11.30am when Jonathan Dowdall, preceded by six gardaí and prison officers, entered the Special Criminal Court.

It being a non-jury court, the jury box was empty and Dowdall, as pre-arranged by the prosecution, took the seat normally occupied by a jury foreperson with his escorts sitting around him. Wearing a navy suit and white shirt, the former Sinn Féin councillor’s hands shook when drinking a glass of water during his direct evidence.

He focused his gaze at the three judges, Ms Justice Tara Burns, Judge Sara Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone.

Almost directly across from him, Gerard Hutch, who denies the murder of David Byrne at Dublin’s Regency Hotel on February 5th, 2016, sat impassively. Preceded by his lawyers, he had arrived into the courtroom about 20 minutes earlier, carrying a black case stuffed with papers.

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Alongside Mr Hutch, sat two co-accused, Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin, and Jason Bonney (50), of Druimnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13, who deny charges of facilitating the murder of Mr Byrne by a criminal organisation.

David Byrne’s parents, Sadie and James, and other family members were in the packed courtroom.

The interest in Mr Dowdall’s evidence was such that, despite dire weather warnings, many travelled for the hearing at the Courts of Criminal Justice, where armed gardaí were in evidence inside and outside the building.

One man, who arrived from Kerry, told The Irish Times he had developed a huge interest in criminal justice while taking second-level students on tours of the courts.

A long queue formed from about 9.30am outside the court, with dozens of members of the public, up to 20 media and several gardaí seeking admission. Just before the hearing started, an overflow courtroom was made available.

At the outset, the judges were told Mr Dowdall’s solicitor had written to the prosecution in recent days and the correspondence was provided to the defence. Exchanges between the judges and counsel indicated it appeared Mr Dowdall was unhappy with the impact on his health of his prison conditions.

Brendan Grehan SC, for Mr Hutch, said he was not sure what the purpose of the correspondence was and it appeared Mr Dowdall was “setting forth some preconditions before he gives evidence which is extraordinary in itself”.

Ms Justice Burns said the court has no control over what the prison authorities do. “Mr Dowdall is only a witness in the trial,” she said, adding: “We will see what happens.”

Mr Grehan sought and secured the necessary permission to adduce evidence with imputations for the character of Mr Dowdall, saying his doing so “would not come as a surprise to anyone”.

The public were then cleared from the court while it heard brief evidence from a Detective Superintendent, who cannot be identified, who said Mr Dowdall continues to be assessed for the State’s Witness Security Programme and the assessment is independent of his evidence in this trial.

When the public returned, Mr Dowdall was taken through his direct evidence by prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane.

Journalists typed furiously as Mr Dowdall set out how he came to know the Hutch family and the background, as he understood it, to the Hutch-Kinahan feud, including the killing of Gary Hutch and a “punishment” shooting of Patrick Hutch jnr which, Mr Dowdall said, was carried out by Daniel Kinahan.

[ Jonathan Dowdall says Gerard Hutch told him that ‘him and Mago Gately’ shot David Byrne ]

There was near silence when Mr Gillane raised the subject of the killing of David Byrne.

Mr Dowdall said Gerard Hutch had asked to meet him in a park near Whitehall in Dublin about two days after the killing and was “in a panic”. He said Mr Hutch had referred to a photograph published in the Sunday World the previous day of two people – a man and a man dressed as a woman – taken on the day of the shooting.

Mr Hutch, Mr Dowdall said, told him it was “them” in the hotel, that it “was him and them at the hotel” and that he wasn’t happy about David Byrne being killed. Asked by Mr Gillane if Mr Hutch had said who it was that had shot Mr Byrne, Mr Dowdall said: “He said it was him and Mago Gately.”

Mr Dowdall earlier said it was not unusual for the Hutches to ask his family to book hotels or flights for them and he learned on February 4th that his father, Patrick, had been asked by Patsy Hutch to book a room at the Regency Hotel for that night. He said he drove his father to the hotel that evening where his father collected the room key which, he said, Gerard Hutch later that evening collected from them.

He said he travelled to the North with Mr Hutch on two occasions, on February 20th, 2016 and March 7th, 2016, to meet republicans there with a view to trying to secure an end to the Hutch-Kinahan feud.

About 12.40pm, after Mr Dowdall indicated he wanted a break, the court rose early for lunch. When it resumed, legal argument arose during the showing of CCTV evidence to Mr Dowdall and the hearing was adjourned to Tuesday.