Copy provided by our Courts Correspondent Frank Greaney.
Less than 24hrs before Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch is due to stand trial for the murder of David Byrne, Jonathan Dowdall and his father, Patrick, were led into the Special Criminal Court under heavy guard. Extra security measures were put in place with armed gardai stationed outside the entrance to the courthouse from early morning.
Jonathan was due to stand trial for murder too but the charge was dropped after he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of facilitating the murder by making a room at the Regency hotel available to a criminal organisation.
Before considering mitigating factors, the court was minded to hand down an eight-year sentence but they reduced that by half after taking everything into account.
Without assessing its credibility or relevance, Mr J Tony Hunt made reference to his willingness to testify at Mr Hutch’s trial – a decision which has put himself and his immediate family “in peril,” he said.
Patrick Dowdall was jailed for two years for the same offence.
Both of them have already served time for falsely imprisoning and torturing a man at Jonathan’s home on the Navan Rd in 2015.
