Gerard Hutch trial: Dowdall says he did not know room to be used by killers

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

A former Sinn Féin councillor has told a Dublin murder trial he pleaded guilty to facilitating David Byrne's murder by booking a hotel room but did not know it would be used by the killers.

Gerard Hutch is on trial for murdering 33-year-old Mr Byrne during a boxing weigh-in at Dublin's Regency Airport Hotel in 2016.

Former councillor Jonathan Dowdall had also been charged with the murder

He pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of facilitating murder.

Dowdall is serving a four-year sentence and has applied to join the state's witness protection programme.

He has been told his application is not dependent on his evidence in this trial.

On Thursday Brendan Grehan - the barrister for Mr Hutch, who is also known as The Monk - put it to Dowdall that it was not a crime to book a hotel room and asked Dowdall why he had pleaded guilty to facilitating the murder.

Dowdall repeated that he had not booked the room knowing it would be used in the murder that was part of the Hutch-Kinahan gang feud that has claimed 18 lives.

Jonathan Dowdall is a former Sinn Féin councillor

Seventeen of those were carried out on behalf of the Kinahans.

Dowdall said he accepted it had been reckless to book the room.

He has admitted at the three judge non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin that his own testimony was the only evidence that he had given Mr Hutch the key to the hotel room used by David Byrne's murderers.

He also admitted there was no evidence to support his statement that Mr Hutch told him he was one of two men who shot Mr Byrne dead.

'Not a rat'

Dowdall has told the court that Mr Hutch's brother, Patsy, whom he described as being like a second father, "set him up" by asking him to book the hotel room.

He also said in evidence that he was "not a rat" and would be prepared to give evidence at any future murder trial of Patsy Hutch.

"I don't care if I get killed. Nobody will touch my children," he said.

"It's not to do with getting the murder charges dropped."

• Ex-Sinn Féin councillor 'feared' the Hutches

The court also heard a recording of Dowdall's garda (Irish police) interview on 18 May 2016.

In the interview, Dowdall said Gerard Hutch "never spoke to me about the Regency".

But he had earlier told the court Mr Hutch admitted to him that he was one of two gunmen.

Dowdall described his statement in the interview that he did not know who was involved in the shooting as a "lie of necessity".

The court also heard:

• A statement by Dowdall in the police interview in which he said Mr Hutch would have visited him two to three times to discuss fundraisers for Sinn Féin, but that after the Regency murder no politician would come out and say that

• Another interview statement in which Dowdall said his house was raided by officers who believed he was a member of the IRA and possessed firearms and explosive - an incident for which he accused the Hutch family of setting him up and said: "My life is destroyed, I'm going to be shot dead"

• Dowdall admitted to lying in the interview when he said he had not visited the Regency Airport Hotel "in the last five or six years"

Dowdall also told the police interview that he did not believe Mr Hutch was a bad man but he was not a close friend.

He also said he may have met Mr Hutch a couple of times since the Regency shooting, when Mr Hutch called to his house.

But the court has heard 10 hours of secret recordings of conversations between the two as they travelled to Northern Ireland.

The trial continues.