THE threat to Jonathan Dowdall was “severe” and “an attack was likely” after he made a statement against Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, the Regency trial heard.
Det Supt Joseph McLoughlin told the Special Criminal Court officers took a witness statement off ex-Sinn Fein Cllr Dowdall on September 23.
Hutch’s murder trial today heard that his lawyer, Jenny McGeever, contacted cops at various points over the summer.
She told them that Dowdall was willing to implicate others in the Regency attack if the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the murder charge against him.
The DPP wrote to the solicitor on September 16 to say the charge of murdering Kinahan cartel thug David Byrne was being withdrawn against Dowdall, the court previously heard.
Asked by Brendan Grehan SC, for Hutch, why it took so long after to take Dowdall’s statement, Det Supt McLoughlin said: “The Gardai were in possession of information at the time that we needed to manage.
“Once a statement was taken there would be a threat to Jonathan Dowdall, that threat was severe and an attack was likely.
“That level of threat would increase once the statement was taken. We had to put in place proper mitigation measures for the safety of Jonathan Dowdall and his family.
“There were a number of unknowns that we were facing at the time. We couldn’t have done it any quicker.”
Mr Grehan said he will make submissions on the admissibility of Dowdall’s evidence tomorror given he had a “powerful incentive” in implicating Hutch — the dropping of the murder charge.
He said: “A lot of other matters are impossible to determine, the veracity of them, other than the allegations were made.”
DOCUMENT TO STATION
Earlier, Det Gda Cathal Connolly told how Dowdall made a 42-page document, which he brought to the Garda station at Dublin Airport on July 4.
He also came with a separate eight-page file of clarifications from the audio recording of the conversations between himself and Hutch made on March 7, 2016, which were played before the court last week.
Speaking about comments he made on the tapes, Dowdall told cops: “I was trying to tell Gerry what I thought he wanted to hear. I was trying to make out that I’m something I’m not.
“I speak a lot when I’m nervous and I was on tablets. When I read over it I was disgusted and ashamed with how I was acting.”
On the tapes he made reference to the three AK47s used in the Regency hit and guns in general.
But he later told officers: “I was talking about when it first broke in the media. I never paid any attention to guns. I never knew about gun types and never knew guns could be traced.”
Hutch, 59, last of the Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, has pleaded not guilty to Byrne’s murder at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
Co-accused Paul Murphy, 61, of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney, 51, of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13 have pleaded not guilty to helping carry out the killing.
The trial continues before the non-jury Special Criminal Court.