Dowdall tried to de-escalate gang feud as 'innocent lives would’ve been at stake', court hears
There were dozens of gardaí in and around the Criminal Courts of Justice today. Picture: Collins Courts
“He said it was him,” Jonathan Dowdall told the Special Criminal Court.
Gerry ‘the Monk’ Hutch was in a panic and very agitated, Mr Dowdall told the murder trial.
"He said it was him and Mago Gately who were at the hotel and had shot David Byrne. He was upset and saying how he was not happy about shooting that young lad David Byrne dead,” Mr Dowdall told the court.
Mr Hutch feared a lot of innocent people would be killed in retaliation, the court heard.
Jonathan Dowdall said he was describing what happened when he met Mr Hutch in a park in Whitehall just a few days after the Regency Hotel shooting on Friday, February 5, 2016.
Mr Hutch’s brother Eddie was shot dead the Monday after the Regency shooting. Over a dozen more would be killed in the gangland feud.
David Byrne had suffered catastrophic, fatal injuries when he was shot at close range after a team of people stormed the hotel during a boxing weigh-in.
Photographs later showed two of the men alleged to have been involved in the attack — a very distinctive picture of a man dressed as a woman and a man in a flat cap.
The former Sinn Féin councillor told the court, on his first day of giving evidence in the trial, that The Monk told him he was part of the team that carried out the Regency attack.
Meeting the “panicked” Mr Hutch in the park, Mr Dowdall told the court “it was the way that he said it”.
“It’s something I was told, I wish I wasn’t,” he said.
Jonathan Dowdall is taking the stand as part of the State’s case against Mr Hutch. The Special Criminal Court heard that Dowdall is still being assessed for the witness protection programme.
There were dozens of gardaí in and around the Criminal Courts of Justice, next to Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
The gardaí occupied a section of the courtroom, the press another, and the public was left to form large queues outside.
In court, a host of barristers and solicitors gathered where Mr Hutch is sitting with his co-accused, Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney, who face lesser charges.
Mr Hutch’s face has remained largely impassive throughout the two months he has sat in court.
Dressed in his regular navy suit jacket and open-necked shirt, he adopted that same stare.
Even when Mr Dowdall was shown into the court and placed in a seat opposite him, the Monk’s face remained unflappable.
Mr Dowdall, meanwhile, came in flanked by prison officers and gardaí. He took his seat in the witness box, and he spoke quietly in a Dublin accent. He frequently looked down or looked at the judges to address them directly.
When beginning evidence, prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane asked Mr Dowdall to say “a little bit about himself”.
He gave his date of birth. He said how many kids he had. He said he was from Dublin’s north inner city, he gave his occupation. And then he was asked how he knew the Hutch family.
“Through my mother,” he said. “My mother was Gerard’s wife’s close friend.”
He also said he knew Patsy Hutch, the Monk’s brother, and had taken his son Patrick on as an apprentice in his electrician’s firm.
By Mr Dowdall’s account, he was aware of the feud as it began to escalate in late 2015 and said he wanted to do what he could to help de-escalate it because “so many innocent lives would’ve been at stake”.
If there was any other family in that position, he’d have tried to help them, he said.
The violence that erupted at the Regency Hotel would eventually lead Dowdall to this witness box.
His evidence didn't go very far, but Mr Dowdall will return to the stand.
Mr Gillane was about to begin putting questions to Mr Dowdall about the now-infamous secret recordings, from when he drove north with Mr Hutch to try to canvass republicans to broker a peace deal with the Kinahan gang.
Mr Hutch's senior counsel Brendan Grehan took exception to that. He said he didn’t know what Mr Dowdall would say when portions of the tapes were put to him.
“I’m sorry to say I’m not happy with that,” he said.
“And I’m generally a happy person. I’m entitled to notice of what a witness is going to say.”
The solution found at court was to finish early and get Mr Dowdall to give a statement that could be furnished in advance of tomorrow’s sitting.
“I was looking forward to beginning cross-examination today,” Mr Grehan said.
Bar anything else unforeseen arising, he’ll get his chance tomorrow.
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