Former Sinn Fein councillor and convicted torturer Jonathan Dowdall, who was jailed for facilitating the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne, was "duped" and put in the "firing line" for the Regency Hotel attack, his lawyers have told the Court of Appeal.
Appealing the severity of his four-year sentence for facilitating the Regency attack, Michael O'Higgins SC, for Dowdall, told the three-judge court today that while the State may say the hotel room at the hotel was part of the "launching pad" for the murder of Mr Byrne, he would submit it was the "launching pad for a contrived event plan of disinformation, which was put together in a way where my client was left front and centre".
During the investigation, gardai established the person using the room in the Regency Hotel was Kevin Murray, who had had known paramilitary connections with the IRA. Murray was very visible over the course of the day on CCTV footage and walked around the hotel freely, while during the attack he was seen on CCTV footage with a handgun held aloft.
