Gerard Hutch trial: Dowdall denies mass murder plan
- Published
Gerard Hutch has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne
A former Sinn Féin councillor has denied a claim that he discussed mass murder with Gerard Hutch during secretly recorded conversations.
Jonathan Dowdall described the claim as "ridiculous".
Mr Hutch is on trial for murdering 33-year-old David Byrne during a boxing weigh-in at Dublin's Regency Airport Hotel in 2016.
Gardai (Irish police) secretly recorded the pair as they travelled to and from Northern Ireland after the murder.
'Ballistically traced'
In the recordings, Mr Hutch can be heard telling Dowdall that "these three yokes were throwing up either way" as "a present".
The prosecution say that is a reference to giving up the three AK47 assault rifles used in the Regency Airport Hotel murder.
Mr Hutch can also be heard saying: "Twelve months time there's two RUC men dead and them things ballistically traced."
Dowdall replied the police would then link that to the Regency.
Mr Hutch then says any smart copper would then say it is "a joint yoke".
The guns were recovered from a vehicle by gardaí (Irish police) near Slane, County Meath, a month after the Regency shooting.
The driver of that car, Shane Rowan, is currently serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence for possession of firearms and membership of an illegal organisation styling itself as the IRA.
Bomb making
Jonathan Dowdall is a former Sinn Féin councillor
Dowdall, an electrician, admitted that in the secret recordings he described to Gerard Hutch how to make a bomb.
He said he had never made an explosive device and his comments were based on what he had picked up from movies and television programmes.
He also told the trial that a dissident republican had pressured him to provide circuits for timers for bombs, but he said he never did.
David Byrne's death was the second in the Hutch-Kinahan feud that has claimed 18 lives.
Dowdall had also been charged with Mr Byrne's killing but in October he pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of facilitating the murder by renting a hotel room for the killers.
He is currently serving a four-year sentence and has applied to join the state's witness protection programme.
Dowdall previously told the court that Mr Hutch admitted to him that he was one of two men who shot David Byrne dead.
He has accepted there was no corroboration of that.
On Monday, Dowdall told the court Mr Hutch admitted to him at a meeting in a park that he and another person named Nan were the two gunmen who shot Mr Byrne dead.
But in the secretly-recorded garda conversations Mr Hutch said media commentary about who was involved was just speculation.
He also said the six people allegedly involved did not even know each other.
Asked why he did not challenge Mr Hutch on this, Dowdall said Mr Hutch was lying as the Hutch brothers, cousins and friends were involved.
Mr Hutch's barrister asked why would he lie if he had already told Dowdall he did it.
Dowdall replied that Mr Hutch lied because "I hadn't a clue who was involved."
Later, Dowdall described as "horrendous" a suggestion he made to Mr Hutch about kidnapping Mr Byrne's sister.
In secretly recorded garda interviews, Dowdall told Mr Hutch that Mr Byrne's sister was likely to attend a dancing competition in Ennis, County Clare.
Dowdall said he was sorry for what he was recorded saying.
The trial continues.
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