Hutch trial: Search warrant was obtained for Dowdall's home to look for IRA firearms and explosives
Members of the Garda Public Order Unit on duty at the Special Criminal Court during the trial of Gerry Hutch. File picture: Collins Courts
A search warrant was obtained for former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall's home on the basis that firearms and explosives were being stored there on behalf of the IRA, an inspector has told the Special Criminal Court.
The court also heard it was "slightly exaggerated" to say that the Garda Diving Unit was brought in to search an "enormous" pond at the back of Dowdall's home.
The non-jury court also heard that the warrant was executed on Dowdall's house an hour after three AK-47 assault rifles — used in the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne at the Regency Hotel — were recovered by gardaí in the boot of convicted IRA member Shane Rowan's car.
The court was also told on Monday that a tracking device was fitted to Jonathan Dowdall's Land Cruiser jeep when he drove Gerard Hutch across the border two weeks after the murder of Mr Byrne.
Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch (59), last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, denies the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
This afternoon, Inspector Padraig Boyce told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that on October 11, 2016, he identified Jonathan Dowdall in a CCTV still as the male walking into a BP garage in Co. Armagh on February 20.
Under cross-examination, Insp. Boyce agreed with Brendan Grehan SC, defending Mr Hutch, that he was tasked with collecting CCTV from around the country in connection with the wider Regency Hotel investigation. Asked why PSNI matters came to the Special Detective Unit (SDU), Insp. Boyce said the SDU is the investigative wing of Crime and Security but that he did not know anything about any surveillance carried out by the PSNI.
When asked by Mr Grehan if he knew anything about a tracker being fitted to Dowdall's Land Cruiser, Insp. Boyce said he was aware that there was "an audio" but not a tracker.
Insp. Boyce agreed that he was involved in obtaining a warrant to search the home of Jonathan Dowdall. "As I understand, is that on the basis at the time that firearms and explosives on behalf of the IRA were being stored at his home?" asked Mr Grehan. "Yes, that is the information I had at the time from Detective Superintendent Tom Maguire," he replied, adding that he did not know the source of this information.
Mr Grehan put it to Insp. Boyce that this was not an independent belief that he had himself but one that was communicated to him. "I was aware there were interactions between Shane Rowan and Jonathan Dowdall," he said.
Insp. Boyce said he got the warrant on March 4, 2016, and executed it shortly after 8pm on March 9, 2016. "I was involved with the firearms at Slane earlier that evening," said the witness. He agreed that he was present when three AK-47 assault rifles were found in the boot of Rowan's car.
The court has heard that Shane Rowan, last of Forest Park, Killygordan, in County Donegal was driving a grey Vauxhall Insignia car when he was stopped outside Slane in Co. Meath at 7.05pm on March 9, 2016. The vehicle was searched and three assault rifles modelled on original AK-47's and ammunition were found in the boot of the car. Evidence has been given that bullet cases found at the Regency Hotel murder scene were fired by the three AK-47 assault rifles.
In July 2016, Rowan was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for possession of assault rifles and ammunition. He was also sentenced to a concurrent sentence of four years in prison for IRA membership, backdated to March 9, 2016.
Mr Grehan put it to Insp. Boyce that he had gone immediately from Slane to Jonathan Dowdall's home on the Navan Road. Insp. Boyce said he had got a call from Det. Insp. William Hanrahan to execute the warrant.
Mr Grehan asked the witness if it was planned that the warrant would not be executed at Dowdall's home until after the AK-47's were recovered. "At the time I believed Jonathan Dowdall was in control of these firearms," he said.
"I take it that it was not a coincidence that the warrant was executed after the intervention at Slane, they are connected?" asked Mr Grehan. The witness said they were and that they were searching for evidence of possession of firearms and explosives at Dowdall's house and also evidence in relation to membership of an unlawful organisation.
Insp. Boyce said Dowdall was not arrested on March 9 and that nothing in relation to firearms and explosives were recovered at his address. However, he said a USB key was recovered in a cupboard in the kitchen on March 10 and sent for analysis.
Mr Grehan asked the witness if a fish tank was searched at Dowdall's house. "There was a significant pond, it was enormous out the back, the house was searched over a period of two days," said Insp. Boyce, adding that it was "slightly exaggerated" that the Garda Diving Unit was brought in.
"Does there appear to be a reference to the Garda Diving Unit having to attend?" asked Mr Grehan. Insp. Boyce said he could not say from memory as he was dealing with Rowan during his detention.
Insp. Boyce said he had watched the contents of the USB key and that it showed Dowdall and his father Patrick Dowdall torturing Alex Hurley. The witness said there was no complaint made by Mr Hurley to gardaí at that point but that he had sought him out and that he was willing to make a complaint.
Insp. Boyce said Mr Hurley agreed to meet Jonathan Dowdall at his house under the pretense that he was being brought for dinner, but that Mr Hurley had been tied to a chair, cable tied, waterboarded, had his head shaved and threatened that he would be brought up north and shot.
The witness agreed that the expression "waterboarding" is more connected to "Guantanamo". He also agreed that Patrick Dowdall had threatened to cut off Mr Hurley's fingers.
Insp. Boyce further agreed that Jonathan Dowdall was wearing a balaclava and was doing most of the talking and threatening. The Inspector said he was involved in the arrest of Jonathan Dowdall and had charged him. Asked if Jonathan Dowdall had ever given an explanation for what he did to Mr Hurley, the officer said he had not.
Insp. Boyce said he had also searched Jonathan Dowdall's business premises and a boat belonging to Patrick Dowdall in the south-east of the country.
He agreed that the Dowdalls were subsequently prosecuted at a "drawn-out" sentence hearing for falsely imprisoning Mr Hurley and threatening to kill him at Jonathan's family home on January 15, 2015. He said "issue" had been taken by Jonathan Dowdall in relation to some of the evidence.
In June 2017, Jonathan Dowdall was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and Patrick Dowdall eight years' imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court for physically and mentally torturing a man they both suspected of trying to defraud them. However, the Dowdalls successfully appealed their sentences before the Court of Appeal in April 2018 and Jonathan Dowdall was resentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with the final 25 months suspended and Patrick Dowdall to seven with the final three years suspended.
Earlier, retired Special Detective Unit Inspector William Hanrahan told Mr Gillane that he asked a member of the PSNI for footage of a vehicle from 9.50am at a BP petrol station on the Newry Road and from 7pm at the Quays Shopping Centre in Newry.
In his opening address, Mr Gillane said it was the State's case that Mr Hutch had asked Dowdall to arrange a meeting with provisional republicans to mediate or resolve the Hutch-Kinahan feud due to the threats against the accused's family and friends. Dowdall had driven Gerard Hutch to meet the republicans on February 20, 2016, he said.
The State also said in their opening speech that Dowdall drove Gerard Hutch north to a second meeting in Strabane in Co. Tyrone on March 7, 2016, and that their vehicle was the subject of surveillance. The Special Criminal Court has already viewed CCTV footage of what the State says is Gerard Hutch making two separate journeys to Northern Ireland with Jonathan Dowdall on February 20 and March 7, 2016.
On November 2, Mr Grehan, defending Mr Hutch, told his client's murder trial that it was “of great significance” whether gardaí deployed a tracker device on a jeep belonging to Jonathan Dowdall and illegally used it while the vehicle was in Northern Ireland.
The lawyer said it would be very important in relation to the tracker device deployed in Northern Ireland but of even greater importance would be whether a listening bug was deployed outside the State, which would raise itself in due course in the trial.
Under cross-examination on Monday, Mr Hanrahan agreed with Mr Grehan that he and been attached to the SDU for most of his career and that it mainly dealt with terrorism. The witness said there was information relating to firearms and explosives being transported to the north from members of the IRA.
Mr Hanrahan said he would have met with Detective Superintendent William Johnston and that he would have made contact with the PSNI. "Orally it came from the PSNI to Crime and Security to ask me to look into it," he said.
When asked who would have made the "very specific request" in relation to checking the CCTV at the BP station on the Newry Road in Co. Armagh at 9.15am on February 20. "It would have come from Crime and Security to me and it [the information] came from the PSNI in Northern Ireland," he said.
Mr Grehan asked Mr Hanrahan if he was aware that there was a tracker device fitted on Dowdall's Land Cruiser and the witness said he was.
"Are you saying that the PSNI supplied intelligence to Crime and Security in relation to this vehicle in Northern Ireland and you were then contacted by Crime and Security and asked to contact a different section of PSNI to canvas for the CCTV," asked Mr Grehan. Mr Hanrahan agreed that this was what he was saying.
The witness told Mr Grehan that this was the extent of his involvement concerning CCTV in Northern Ireland. Asked how he was aware that the intelligence about the vehicle at the BP garage and at the Quays Shopping Centre came from the PSNI, Mr Hanrahan said it was what he was told.
Under cross-examination today by Mr Grehan, Detective Garda Alan Lynch said he had contacted Patrick Dowdall, who confirmed that he had booked a room at the Regency Hotel on February 4 but had cancelled the booking and not used the room at all.
The witness agreed with the lawyer that an incomplete address had been given to the hotel receptionist at the time of booking and that the telephone number provided had some of the digits moved around. He told Mr Grehan that there were a number of suspicious elements to the booking including that Mr Dowdall had lied to him when he said he had cancelled the room, that the address was slightly awry and that the phone number was mixed up. Housekeeping was able to tell the detective that the room had been used in some capacity and CCTV showed Mr Dowdall checking into the room at 7.18pm on February 4, he said.
Bar manager of the Regency Hotel in 2016, Karl Wall, testified that boxers and coaches from the boxing weigh-in were having food and drink on the morning of February 5 and that a 'Brendan Grace show' was also scheduled to be held that night. Mr Wall said he was getting the bar ready for the evening function when he heard two loud bangs.
"I thought initially it was the stage crew getting ready for the Brendan Grace show," he said.
Mr Wall said a father and son came running in to hide behind the bar and informed him of what had happened in the Regency suite. When the witness entered the Regency suite he could smell gun fire and saw a man who looked like he had been shot in the leg lying on the ground. He also saw a man lying in the lobby and knew that he was dead. The witness said he could still smell gunpowder and rang two detectives at 2.36pm to inform them of what happened. He said he tried to stop people from going near the deceased in the lobby.
Earlier, the three judges ruled that garda interviews given by co-accused Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney were admissible despite them not being cautioned when they gave their initial statements.
In her ruling, presiding judge Ms Justice Tara Burns said that the court failed to see how it can be "so fundamentally unfair" that the two accused were not cautioned. "Whilst the detective clearly made an error in not following the direction to caution, it does not establish any unfairness on the accused," she said, adding that Mr Murphy's statement and Mr Bonney's memo of interview were admissible in the trial.
Jonathan Dowdall (44) — a married father of four with an address at Navan Road, Cabra, Dublin 7 — was due to stand trial for Mr Byrne's murder alongside Gerard Hutch but pleaded guilty in advance of the trial to a lesser charge of facilitating the Hutch gang by making a hotel room available ahead of the murder.
Dowdall has been jailed by the Special Criminal Court for four years for facilitating the Hutch gang in the notorious murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne. The former Dublin councillor is currently being assessed for the Witness Protection Program after agreeing to testify against former co-accused Gerard Hutch, who is charged with Mr Byrne's murder.
Mr Byrne, from Crumlin, was shot dead at the hotel in Whitehall, Dublin 9 after five men, three disguised as armed gardaí in tactical clothing and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, stormed the building during the attack, which was hosting a boxing weigh-in at the time. The victim was shot by two of the tactical assailants and further rounds were delivered to his head and body.
Mr Byrne died after suffering catastrophic injuries from six gunshots fired from a high-velocity weapon to the head, face, stomach, hand and legs.
Mr Hutch's two co-accused - Paul Murphy (59), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (50), of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 have pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of David Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles on February 5, 2016.
The trial continues on Tuesday before Ms Justice Burns sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone.
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