A significant security operation is being put in place at the Criminal Courts of Justice this morning to facilitate Jonathan Dowdall giving evidence at Gerry Hutch’s murder trial.
The former Sinn Féin councillor was also due to stand trial for the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin, but the charge against him was dropped.
Jonathan Dowdall was supposed to be sitting in the dock alongside Gerry Hutch but his plea to a less serious offence was accepted by the DPP and the murder charge against him was dropped just before the trial opened before the non-jury court.
Mr Hutch’s lawyers claimed the charge was dropped in exchange for him testifying against their client but the prosecution denied there wasn’t any link between the two developments and last week, the judges dismissed their attempt to stop Dowdall getting into the witness box.
He’s expected to do so at some point today. Extra security measures have been in place throughout this trial but they’re expected to go up a notch again today to accommodate Dowdall giving his evidence.
The court has already heard that he’s been assessed for the Witness Protection Programme. Dowdall is expected to claim that Mr Hutch told him he was part of the hit team that shot David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.
