Jonathan Dowdall said he believes Gerry Hutch only admitted to him he’d killed David Byrne at the Regency Hotel because he got the wrong man, a court heard yesterday.
Speaking at the Special Criminal Court, the state witness claimed that a desperate Monk – who he admits he wasn’t close friends with – did confess because he “missed Daniel Kinahan and killed another person”. Dowdall made the claim that “things went horribly wrong” for the accused and that’s why he confided in him in a park days after the Regency Hotel attack and told him he’d shot Byrne.
He told defence counsel Brendan Grehan on the fourth day of his cross-examination: “He went in to plan to kill Daniel Kinahan. He missed Daniel Kinahan and he killed another person.
Read more: Jonathan Dowdall claims he didn't know what Regency room he booked would be used for
“People were calling to homes, so that’s probably why he told me.” Hutch, 59, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Byrne at Dublin’s Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016, watched intently as a video recording of Dowdall being interviewed by gardai in May of 2016 was played before the court yesterday.
However, throughout that recording the court heard Dowdall repeatedly insisting to gardai that Gerry Hutch would never tell him about the Regency Hotel murder. "I don’t think the man is stupid enough to tell me. Let’s be honest,” he told gardai.
During his lengthy exchange with gardai Dowdall said that Hutch would call to his home two or three times in relation to fundraisers for Sinn Fein.
He said that “none of the politicians would say that,” before mentioning the name “Mary Lou”. At that point in time Dowdall told gardai that he did not believe Hutch to be a “bad man”.
“I respect Gerard,” he said, claiming that if anyone in the community had a problem where someone was “pressing” upon them that they could go for him to help.
He told officers that in his meetings with Hutch they discussed the newspapers and the fundraising – but never the Regency. He frequently told gardai in the interview that Hutch “never told me about it [the Regency]”.
“Sure why would he? I’m not a criminal,” he said at one point. Dowdall told gardai “there was no conversation or discussion with me to do with the Regency.
“I wouldn’t say come here Gerard, did you do the Regency?” In cross-examining Dowdall about what he says in this garda interview, Mr Grehan put it to the witness that he was lying to detectives.
Dowdall was vehement in his response in that he said he wasn’t lying. “In some aspects I’m not telling the truth. But I’m not telling lies,” Dowdall said.
Several times during the day Mr Grehan put it to Dowdall that he was lying and probed him as to why he told gardai one thing, but now he was claiming that the accused had in fact by that stage confessed to the murder to him.
Read more: Jonathan Dowdall set to give evidence against Gerry Hutch in court
But Dowdall claimed he couldn’t tell gardai the truth back then because he feared that his “family would have been killed if I said I knew who was in the Regency”.
Taking a break from the video Mr Grehan asked Dowdall about his suggestion that Hutch “has some connection to drugs”.
Dowdall responded by saying that a garda had been “caught with a load of drugs belonging to the Hutches”.
Mr Grehan then interjected and asked the witness if there was “any dirt that you don’t care to throw at Gerry Hutch”.
It was at this point that Dowdall appeared to become quite annoyed and rebutted that Hutch was the one throwing dirt at him.
“Is there any dirt that your client is not willing to throw at me... putting photos of my mother and my daughter on Twitter,” he alleged.
Later in the exchange Dowdall would again make reference to this alleged Twitter account which he said posted serious allegations about him and claimed he was the organiser of the Regency Hotel attack.
The account he said alleged that he was paid a sum of €250,000 and organised the firearms and the Regency incident.
Read more: Jonathan Dowdall set to take the stand and face Gerry Hutch on Monday
Dowdall said that as a result of this Twitter account’s claims he became concerned for his and his family’s welfare – and he says he made a member of the Garda Special Detective Unit aware.
At one point during the day Dowdall began to complain about the media coverage and expressed concern about certain aspects of what was being reported.
Ms Justice Tara Burns presiding told the accused that she cannot direct the media on what aspects it can and cannot report on.
He also became frustrated at the interview tape being played and asked Mr Grehan if he had to sit there “and listen to stuff about my children”.
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