JONATHAN Dowdall has said he’s prepared to return to court to give evidence against Patsy Hutch relating to the murder of David Byrne, but said: “I’m not a rat.”
The former Sinn Fein councillor also claims he was “set up” to make it look like he had a role in Mr Byrne’s murder by being asked to book a room at the Regency Hotel.
However he insisted: “I was not involved in the murder.”
He said he trusted Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s older brother, who was like a “father figure” to him, or else he wouldn’t have put one of Patsy’s vans in his name.
But as his second day under cross-examination at the Special Criminal Court came to an end, he told Hutch’s counsel, Brendan Grehan SC: “I trusted Patsy. I believed he had something for me. If someone asks me, I don’t question. We had years of trust built up.
“Then this happens. You keep pushing this on to Patsy. Patsy was involved in this. I don’t care if I’m killed, nobody would touch my children.
“If I have to come in and give evidence against Patsy in the same way I have against Gerard, I will do that.
“Gerard’s the one who got the [hotel key] cards, Patsy got me to book the room, and I met Gerard in the park [where he has alleged Gerry Hutch confessed to Mr Byrne’s murder]. That’s the gospel honest truth.
“I’m not a rat. If I’m required for anything to do in court, I’ll be here.
“I’ll give a commitment to that. It has nothing to do with getting a murder charge dropped.”
Mr Grehan put it to him that he was the man who Patsy got to go to the IRA, and Dowdall replied: “Anybody knows me in the inner city, I worked in cash depots all over Ireland. Highest level of security I had in the country. I applied for a visa to emigrate. I ran in elections in the area I was from.
“I’m sorry for what happened to David Byrne and that family. And I’m sorry for what I said to offend that family but I wasn’t involved in that murder.”
Earlier the State witness admitted that he agreed to give evidence for the Prosecution against The Monk if the murder charge against him was dropped.
Gardai have previously told the court that there was no link between Dowdall’s murder charge being thrown out and his decision to testify before the Special Criminal Court.
Mr Grehan has repeatedly questioned him about this and he has denied he made a “bargain” with the DPP.
But counsel again asked him: “You’re in effect offering to give evidence for the Prosecution if the murder charge is dropped, isn’t that it?”
Dowdall replied: “I suppose it is.”
The 44-year-old is currently serving a four-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to facilitating the murder of Mr Byrne on February 5, 2016, after that charge replaced a charge of murder days before his trial was due to begin.
He also said he was “intentionally” targeted and “set up” by the Regency hit team by being asked to book a room in the hotel the night before Mr Byrne was shot dead.
Dowdall also told counsel that his client, Gerry Hutch, was “willing to throw his own brother [Patsy] under the bus”.
Mr Grehan asked what had prompted him to contact the Gardai in November 2021 about the murder and the former Sinn Fein councillor said he wanted to “tell the truth”.
Counsel added: “Was it to get the murder charge dropped?” And Dowdall replied: “I wasn’t involved in the murder, so of course I wanted it dropped.”
He added: “It’s only natural that if I wasn’t involved I’d want it dropped. I wasn’t involved with the murder. People put a person in a room and that was done intentionally.
“I didn’t know the man who stayed in the room. You’d want to be deranged to book a room if you knew something like that [the murder] was going to happen.”
Mr Grehan asked him: “Apart from a desire after six and a half years to tell the truth, what else were you after?”
Dowdall replied: “A room is used which you know nothing about to set you up in a murder you had nothing to do with. I wanted to speak to the Guards. I knew there were questions and things I had to explain to the Guards.
“I spoke to the Guards because I couldn’t defend myself from the charge.”
Counsel added: “So you put Gerard Hutch in the frame?”
Dowdall said: “I didn’t put Gerard Hutch in the frame. Gerard put himself in the frame.”
The witness agreed with Mr Grehan that there was no other evidence to support his claim that Gerry Hutch confessed to Mr Byrne’s murder days after the Regency hit however he said his father was also there when he said the accused took the keys from him to the hotel room they had booked the night before.
Mr Grehan said: “Before the Regency it was all Patsy, Patsy, Patsy. Then all of a sudden, looming out of the shadows, comes Gerard?”
Dowdall: “The Hutches are willing to throw someone else under the bus. Your client threw his own brother under the bus.”
Counsel also questioned Dowdall about his background and how he became the “go-to guy for Republican contacts”.
Dowdall said: “I’m not the go-to guy for Republican contacts. I have never been involved with dissident Republicans. I don’t have heavy Republican contacts.
“Gerard Hutch has more Republican contacts than I have but I was sent up (to the North) like a gilly while they were planning the Regency.”
He said there were reports in the media which suggest the Provisional IRA were involved in the attack but he added: “The Provos are gone, they don’t exist any more.”
Hutch, 59, last of the Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
His co-accused Paul Murphy, 61, of Swords, Co Dublin, and Jason Bonney, 51, of Portmarnock, Dublin 13, have pleaded not guilty to related charges.
The trial continues.
