Prison bosses may have to house State witness Jonathan Dowdall and his father on their own prison wing if they are jailed tomorrow.
The former Sinn Fein councillor, set to give evidence against Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, pleaded guilty to lesser charges for the Regency attack on February 5, 2016.
The 44-year-old, along with his father Patrick, 65, both with an address on the Navan Road in Dublin, admitted assisting a criminal gang to commit murder.
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A murder charge against Jonathan was dropped and the two men are now in protective garda custody after the Special Criminal Court heard they had turned state’s witness.
Patrick Dowdall booked a room at the Regency Hotel in his own name the day before the fatal shooting of Kinahan lieutenant David Byrne.
The State will make the case that the key card was handed over to the Hutch crime gang and the room was then allegedly used by Kevin “flat cap” Murray, one of the suspected members of the hit team. Murray died abroad before he could be extradited to stand trial.
A source said if the Dowdalls are given custodial sentences, prison bosses will have to find a secure unit to house them.
They may resort to giving them their own wing in one of the jails in Dublin.
The source told the Sunday Mirror: “If the Dowdalls get a custodial sentence they will have to be placed in an extremely secure area of a prison where they have no interaction with anybody.
“At the moment nowhere like that exists. There used to be secure cells in the basement of Arbour Hill Prison but they are no longer usable and haven’t been used since Charlie Bowden, another state witness, was housed there in the late 1990s.
“They would be safe enough in Arbour Hill as the inmates there are either long serving inmates who are OAPS and pose no danger to each other or criminals who are not aligned to any gangs.
“The only other real alternative would be to place them on their own wing in one of the other Dublin jails.
“Nobody would be allowed to interact with them and they would be under 23-hour lock-up.
“Their lives are in danger and every security measure will be put in place.”
It is feared members of the dwindling Kinahan cartel could use the court case as an opportunity to target The Monk or his supporters in an attack.
The Special Criminal Court heard how The Monk, 59, is anxious for the case to start on Tuesday.
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