Five key moments from Jonathan Dowdall’s testimony in the Gerry Hutch murder trial
After much anticipation, Jonathan Dowdall finally appeared on the witness stand at Gerry Hutch’s trial for the murder of David Byrne last Monday morning.
We testified against Hutch before being subjected to rigorous cross-examination by the defense.
Here are five key moments from this week’s events:
Dowdall says Hutch confessed to him about the hotel shooting
An hour before the trial began this week, members of the public formed a line eager to catch a glimpse of the state’s key witness who was making his testimony.
At one point there were doubts as to whether he would even take the stand at all – it turned out Dowdall’s lawyer had sent in advance a list of conditions he wanted clarified.
Brendan Grehan SC, defending Hutch, said it was “extraordinary”. Nonetheless, Dowdall, former Sinn Féin councilman, went on to testify Monday morning.
He told a packed courtroom he was present when his father gave Hutch a key card to a room at the Regency Hotel used by one of the gunmen the day before the murder.
He also recalled meeting Hutch in a park days after the shooting. “He said it was them at the hotel, he wasn’t happy about shooting the young lad David Byrne,” Dowdall said.
When asked by prosecutor Sean Gillane SC if the defendant said who shot Byrne, Jonathan Dowdall replied, “He said him and Mago Gately.”
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Former Sinn Féin councilman Jonathan Dowdall testified at Gerry Hutch’s trial this week
Lies, shite talk, bravery and necessity
The focus of this week’s defense cross-examination was Jonathan Dowdall’s relationship with the truth.
In the past five days, he has repeatedly denied lying in certain situations. Other times he admitted to lying for various reasons.
When asked if he lied when he told RTÉ’s Joe Duffy he wasn’t involved in the crime, Dowdall said he “didn’t think of it” at the time.
Claims that he was involved in the bombing of his uncle’s home and that he was planning to bomb a man’s home in Wexford are “just showing off, shitty talk”.
He said he only lied to gardaí when he was arrested “out of necessity” in 2016, fearing for his safety and the safety of his family.
Dowdall eventually accepted that he had lied to the Special Criminal Court in his previous wrongful imprisonment case.
He accepted that he lied when he claimed he didn’t know who recorded him waterboarding a man.
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Elizabeth Cook court drawing of Jason Bonney, 50, and Paul Murphy, 59, along with co-defendant Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch (right) during a trial at the Special Criminal Court, Dublin
Threatening state witness ‘on a whole different level’
Time and time again this week, Jonathan Dowdall has revealed in court the extent of the threat he said he was under, even before he became a state witness.
When he was granted bail, he said people wearing motorcycle helmets were shouting over his wall and that an employee of Gerry Hutch arrived at his home.
The witness gave an insight into the current state of affairs regarding the alleged threats against his family yesterday.
He said his 62-year-old mother received threatening phone calls, some from people she had been friendly with when they were “kids,” telling her “she was dead.”
The three judges were also told that “children under the age of 10 are at risk”, have not been going to school since September and the school “will not take them,” he said the back”.
His daughter was also forced to leave her job due to safety concerns, he said.
The threat is now, according to Dowdall, “on a whole different level”.
Dowdall monologues
After two days of lengthy interrogation earlier in the week, the ex-politician spoke at length at the end of each court day.
In his first speech in court, he denied claims by the defense that he would not speak to the Gardaí until he was charged with murder.
This, he claimed, was not true, and he detailed how he was unable to contact investigators while serving a sentence at Wheatfield Prison with members of the Hutch family before making contact with a senior detective.
His second monologue came at the end of the following day.
“I don’t care if I get killed, nobody’s going to touch my kids,” Dowdall said. “In case I have to go to court later and testify against Patsy [Gerard Hutch’s brother]I will do that.”
“I’m not a rat,” Dowdall added, saying he “screwed up” a man’s waterboarding and was sorry about what happened to David Byrne, but said he was not involved in his murder.
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Murdered Real IRA boss Alan Ryan
Alan Ryan, the IRA and Sinn Féin
Dowdall’s ties to the IRA, dissident Republicans and Sinn Féin have been raised several times in court.
He admitted to traveling north to settle feuds with Republican figures for the Hutch family, referring to himself as a “ghillie” for doing so while the attack was being planned.
Dowdall also said that the late Real IRA leader Alan Ryan called his home in Cabra with a number of men. The defense said RIRA does not make house calls every day.
He said he had visited IRA killer Pearse McAuley in prison up to three times, although defense records suggested it was actually 14 times.
McAuley, he said, put him in touch with Republicans up north, but also warned him not to get involved and “to have no bolt on it.”
Dowdall also told Gardaí in interviews that Gerry Hutch had visited his home three times, including to raise funds for Sinn Féin.
He also stated in court that he had made a remark about Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald that was “very unfair” on a personal level.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/five-key-moments-from-jonathan-dowdalls-evidence-in-murder-trial-of-gerry-hutch-42226192.html Five key moments from Jonathan Dowdall’s testimony in the Gerry Hutch murder trial