Court finds former Sinn Féin Councillor threatened waterboarding victim with IRA claims

The Special Criminal Court has accepted allegations that a former Sinn Féin Councillor claimed he was in the IRA and threatened the family of a man he had falsely imprisoned and waterboarded.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, presiding at the non-jury court, returned judgement this afternoon in a "Newton hearing" to decide on a dispute between the prosecution and the defence on the facts of the case of Jonathan Dowdall (aged 38) and his father Patrick Dowdall (aged 59).