Ex-Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall's appeal against Special Criminal Court trial struck out

Jonathan Dowdall (pictured) is due to stand trial at the non-jury Special Criminal Court after losing his challenge against the DPP’s decision. File picture

An appeal by former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall against the High Court's refusal to overturn a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to try him for the Regency Hotel murder at the Special Criminal Court (SCC) has been struck out by the Court of Appeal.

Dowdall (44), of Navan Road, Dublin, and Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch (58) – who was extradited from Spain last September – are both charged with the murder of David Byrne (33) at the hotel in Whitehall, Dublin, on February 5, 2016.

They are due to stand trial at the non-jury SCC after losing separate challenges against the DPP’s decision.

Both had claimed in judicial review proceedings at the High Court that any trial before the SCC would be unlawful and in breach of their fundamental rights because the court was operating as a permanent institution after being established on a temporary basis half a century ago.

But Mr Justice Anthony Barr dismissed both actions, ruling that the legislation challenged was neither temporary nor had any temporal limit. Hutch and Dowdall later sought leave to appeal the High Court judge’s decision directly to the Supreme Court.

Dowdall, a former Dublin City councillor, had also lodged an appeal against Mr Justice Barr’s ruling with the Court of Appeal.

But on Friday, the President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham, was informed by Colm Kitson BL, for the Attorney General, that the case could be struck out. The move follows the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Hutch and Dowdall appeals next Tuesday.

Dowdall and Hutch, last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, had originally raised judicial reviews against the Minister for Justice, Dail Eireann, Ireland and the Attorney General. Seanad Eireann was also a respondent in the Hutch case.

In a judgement issued on February 11, Mr Justice Barr also stated that there was no basis in law to prevent the DPP from certifying that Hutch and Dowdall should be tried before the SCC on the charge of murder.