Gerard Hutch trial: Jonathan Dowdall 'had a history of lying', court hears

Gerard Hutch has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne

A defence lawyer for Gerard Hutch has told a court that former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall has a history of lying.

Mr Hutch, from the Paddocks, Clontarf, denies murdering David Byrne, 33, at Dublin's Regency Airport Hotel in 2016.

Dowdall was due to stand trial for the same offence, but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of facilitating murder.

He has agreed to take part in the Irish witness protection programme in order to give evidence at the trial.

Dowdall was jailed for four years in October of this year after admitting to facilitating the killing by renting a room at the hotel.

On Tuesday, Brendan Grehan. senior counsel for Mr Hutch, began his cross-examination of Dowdall.

He told the court there were two big lies that Dowdall had told - firstly, that he had given the keys to the Regency Airport Hotel room he had booked to Mr Hutch; and, secondly, that Mr Hutch had confessed to him that he was the killer.

Dowdall told the court on Monday that the defendant told him he and another man shot Mr Byrne.

Mr Grehan indicated that Dowdall had a history of lying.

Dowdall denied he was "a master manipulator".

Jonathan Dowdall is a former Sinn Féin councillor

Mr Grehan said Dowdall had previously told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin that he did not know who had filmed him waterboarding a man in a dispute over the sale of a motorcycle.

Dowdall was released from prison in April this year after serving a sentence for falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill the man who he had tortured by waterboarding in 2015.

On Tuesday, he admitted that he knew it was a younger female family member who had made the recording.

He said he was deeply ashamed and his family had suffered because of his actions.

Some taped conversations 'crap talk'

Earlier, Dowdall said he is ashamed of some of the things he said to Mr Hutch in secret garda (police) recordings of conversations between the two men.

The three-judge non-jury court has been listening again to the secret recordings.

A recording device was planted in Dowdall's jeep, which recorded about 10 hours of conversation between the pair.

Some of the clips were played to the court and Dowdall was asked to explain the contents of the conversation.

In the tapes, Mr Hutch said: "I want these three yokes out of here."

In evidence on Tuesday, Dowdall said that is a reference to three AK-47 weapons.

Dowdall described some of what he said in the recordings as "crap talk".

In a tape played to the court, Dowdall questions Mr Hutch over a meeting he had with dissident republicans about handing over the "yokes" to them.

Hutch-Kinahan feud

He asked whether Mr Hutch told dissident republicans the Hutches were involved in the Regency Airport Hotel attack.

Mr Hutch replied that he did not.

The court was previously told that the murder of Mr Byrne during a boxing weigh-in at the hotel was carried out as part of a feud between the Hutch and Kinahan crime gangs.

It was the second killing in the Hutch-Kinahan feud that has claimed at least 18 lives.

In evidence on Tuesday, Dowdall said the sons of Gerard Hutch's brother, Patsy, "started it - it wasn't Gerard".

In the recordings, Mr Hutch said gardaí "are running around like headless chickens".

He added that the six men involved in the murder do not know each other.

But on Tuesday in evidence, Dowdall said he believes that was not true after reading who had been charged.

Lawyers for Mr Hutch had previously argued at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin that Dowdall's willingness to give evidence against their client was a quid pro quo for having the murder charges dropped.

The presiding judge in the court, Ms Justice Tara Burns, rejected that argument.