STATE witness Jonathan Dowdall was “used, duped, put in the firing line, made front and centre and there was no loyalty shown to him”, the Court of Criminal Appeal has been told.
The former Sinn Fein councillor is appealing the severity of the four-year sentence he received last October for facilitating the murder of Kinahan cartel thug David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.
Dowdall had a murder charge dropped days before he was due to go on trial and he went on to testify against Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
But the Special Criminal Court rejected his claims that he handed key cards from a room he booked at the hotel the night before Byrne’s murder to Hutch and that the Monk told him days later that he was one of the gunmen at the Regency.
The three judges did rule that they were satisfied that the Hutch Organised Crime Group carried out the attack.
Today in the Court of Criminal Appeal, prosecutor Sean Gillane SC said it’s clear that the “Hutch gang were involved in murder, money-laundering and firearms and there connection to what became known as the Hutch-Kinahan feud.”
Mr Gillane: “The booking of the hotel room was the launchpad for the murder.
“There was also the delivery of that key cards from the hotel room to a leading member of that criminal organisation.”
Mr Michael O’Higgins SC, for Dowdall, said in terms of murder, the Regency was the “first strike” by the Hutch gang, but Mr Gillane replied: “It was the evidence of the garda that the Hutch gang were involved in all three for many years.”
GUILTY PLEA
Mr O’Higgins argued that the Special Criminal Court erred in principle in jailing Dowdall for four years when he was entitled to greater credit from the court for his guilty plea and the assistance he gave gardai, and that’s before you consider the fact that he and his family will be entered in the Witness Protection Programme.
He also pointed out that his father Patrick Dowdall, who the court was told was an “assistant to the assistant”, was jailed for two years when there was little to differentiate between the pair.
Presiding Judge George Birmingham said to Mr O’Higgins: “Just from reading the papers I was off the opinion that he did very well. He pleaded guilty to a very serious offence?”
Counsel said that was merely speculative and described it as a “unique” case.
Dowdall was brought to court under heavy armed guard. Wearing a white shirt, he sat silently in the jury box while the appeal was being heard.
Opening his submissions, Mr O’Higgins said: “Mr Dowdall is a person who comes from inner city Dublin. He ran a very successful business, built up blue chip clients. He was making a good living, he was a good employer, had a heavily mortgaged house and paying for his children’s private education.
WELL-RESPECTED
“He was a person who was ambitious for his family and his children, a person who was well respected within his community and gave out apprenticeships to young people.
“His family lived next door to Gerry Hutch’s mother and he might have socialised with the family. He had a relationship with Patsy Hutch but had very little contact with Gerry Hutch.
“He is not and has never been a member of an organised crime group·
“The Hutch’s did not have credit cards and he would book holidays for them. There were shortfalls in his business and he obtained loans from Patsy Hutch and these loans were paid in flow.
“The evidence of the garda was that he was compromised by this.
‘ABOMINABLE’ BEHAVIOUR
“He employed Patrick Hutch Jr and often gave work to Patsy. That was his connection up until he was trying to sell a motorbike when a man came to his house.
“The behaviour he engaged in in the house was abominable. This person was humiliated, terrified and frightened.
“To say that he fell from the dizzy heights is an understatement. He got a sentence of 12 years, reduced to eight years.
“He came out of prison having been charged with this offence. He was a broken man at that time
“He set about engaging with the authorities as far back as he was arrested for this offence.
“In prison he was housed with all the Hutches. The Book of Evidence was in circulation and that would not have been well-received.
“Mr Dowdall was always pleading not guilty to murder. The conversations in the car implicated Gerry Hutch far more than it implicated my client.
“On my client’s arrest in 2016 he sought out the Witness Protection Programme. He wasn’t charged with the offence until much later·
PLEADED GUILTY
“The charge was laid, he pleaded to it as soon as it was laid. It should operate as a signed plea, which the court has said before should get a 30 per cent reduction, not 25 per cent.
“If you’re guilty, you’re guilty. But circumstances alter cases, my client was in a terrible bind. He was charged with murder, he could have been convicted of that.
“His position was untenable and he weighed that up with his responsibilities to his family.
“My client facilitated the Hutches, in a way he had done many times before.
“The room was worn by a particular individual known as Flatcap. He was seen going into the room on CCTV, conducting himself in a way unlike what you would expect a hired gun to do.
“It turned out that he had a terminal illness and died not long after. He was to take the gardai eye and point them towards the dissident republicans. My client was used, he accepts that and knows that he’s guilty.
“But he was duped and put front an centre and in the firing line where there was no loyalty shown to him.”
The three judges said they would deliver their judgement when they are in a position to do so.
