Now that the trial of Gerard “The Monk” Hutch has ended in his acquittal, focus will inevitably turn to the what lies in store for the prosecution’s star witness, former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall.
After giving evidence against Hutch implicating him in the 2016 Regency Hotel attack – evidence that was almost entirely rejected by the Special Criminal Court – the 44-year-old has been formally admitted to the Witness Security Programme (WSP) and advised of his rights and responsibilities as a participant.
Garda procedures for the WSP are based, in part, on guidance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). This suggests that once he finishes serving his four-year prison term for assisting in the Regency shooting, Dowdall will be relocated overseas where he will be protected by local security services in co-operation with gardaí.
He will receive some financial support to get him on his feet and perhaps an interest-free loan to take part in training or set up a new business. Having once ran a successful electrical company in Dublin, it is probable Dowdall will seek similar work in his new home.
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One awkward question is whether Dowdall’s family will be included in the programme. He told the court during the Hutch trial that his mother and children have already received threats over his decision to turn State’s witness.
“Witnesses with strong social and family links pose a range of additional difficulties that must be considered during the assessment process,” the UNODC says. The number of family members admitted along with the protectee should depend, in part, “on factors such as family traditions and social culture”, it recommends.
Dowdall will also have to comply with strict conditions, including that he stays out of trouble, maintains a low profile and, potentially, does not return to Ireland.
He may be allowed to contact close family members who remain behind but only through secure channels established by the Garda. Occasional reunions are possible, the UNODC says, but, for security reasons, these should take place in a third country.
Dowdall’s agreement with the Garda will also contain an exit protocol laying out the procedure if either side wishes to terminate the agreement. This would come into play if Dowdall decides he can no longer comply with the terms of protection or if the Garda determines the threat posed by the Hutch gang and its allies has dissipated, something which is currently a remote possibility.
The Garda will also be able to terminate protection for stated misbehaviour on Dowdall’s part, including if he refuses to abide by security advice.
However, the agreement will not be impacted by the failure of Dowdall’s evidence to secure a conviction against Hutch. Neither will it be affected by the Special Criminal Court’s scathing criticism of Dowdall’s character and credibility.
Ms Justice Tara Burns called Dowdall a “ruthless, base, callous criminal” who told “lie after lie”. She said he was a suspected IRA member who was an associate of Pearse McAuley, “an infamous and dangerous terrorist of long-standing”. (McAuley was jailed for the manslaughter of Det Garda Jerry McCabe during a bank robbery in 1996.) Dowdall frequently visited McAuley while the veteran republican was in prison.
There is no question of the judge’s comments, strong as they were, impacting Dowdall’s standing as a protected witness, security sources said. “That would ruin the credibility and integrity of the whole programme. No one would trust it again,” said one source.
But, while Dowdall may now retreat into the secrecy of witness protection, he leaves many headaches in his wake, not least for his former party Sinn Féin.
These stem from secretly obtained recordings played during the trial where Dowdall tells Hutch of his involvement in serious criminality well before being selected to run for Dublin City Council for the party.
[ Sinn Féin under pressure to clarify dealings with Dowdall prior to electionOpens in new window ]
On the recordings, Dowdall can be heard telling Hutch that he was asked about this criminality by the party’s then Dublin director of elections Brian Keane during a vetting interview before the 2014 local elections.
This raises the question of whether party officials had suspicions about Dowdall’s involvement in criminality before his selection. The party has repeatedly denied knowing about his criminality at the time.
The background to the controversy is a gun attack on the home of Dowdall’s uncle, named only as Jimmy, in November 2011. When interviewed by gardaí, Jimmy named Dowdall as a possible suspect. He later retracted this after receiving assurances from Dowdall he was not involved.
But the recordings of Dowdall and Hutch show Dowdall repeatedly referring to lying to his uncle, talking about getting his house “shot up” and bragging that he got away with it.
Dowdall told Hutch that the IRA knew about “Jimmy’s gaff”. “There was a load of them knew about it but it wouldn’t have been Sinn Féin’s business to know about it,” he said.
Then Dowdall described his interview with Keane before being chosen as a local election candidate. He said Keane said to him, “I just wanna bring something up to ya”.
Keane allegedly told Dowdall that he was driving by Dowdall’s house in Cabra with someone who told him that Dowdall had “riddled” his uncle’s house. “And ya done this and you’d a row with this fella and ya’d this and ya’d that.”
Dowdall said he replied: “And what? What’s that got to do with anything?”
Dowdall told Hutch: “Now I wasn’t admittin’ to it.”
He said he wanted to know if Keane was asking on his own behalf or that of Sinn Féin. “Who knows you’re here after me about this?” Dowdall inquired.
According to Dowdall, Keane said it was his job to know “in case it comes out in the media”.
Dowdall said to Hutch: “He didn’t know that the IRA fellas knew about this and they were involved in it.”
He continued: “So I knew straight off he didn’t do his homework before he came to me.”
What came next was typical of Dowdall’s efforts to impress Hutch. On the recording, he said he told Keane that he was going to say two things: “First off, none of your f**king business it’s a family thing, second thing I says nothing in my past that I ever did that I’m ashamed a doin’ I said, and the other thing I said ‘Eh who knows you’re asking me this?’; he said: ‘Oh this is me job to ask ya this, blah, blah, blah.’
“I said: I want to know the name of who told you about that, and Gerard I wouldn’t rest til I got to the bottom of it and I said and another thing, I says you’d wanna find out before you’re approaching me about stuff that doesn’t involve ya, I said, because there’s certain people that knows about this within the organisation, who are these, I’m not f**king telling ya that, I said I’ll get them to come and have a word with ya”.
Dowdall told Hutch that he knew it wasn’t his uncle Jimmy who told Sinn Féin: “They [republicans] were after feeding it into Sinn Féin to try to f**k me up,” he said.
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Given that Dowdall is an admitted serial liar, his bragging to Hutch must be viewed with a healthy degree of scepticism. It is entirely possible he was merely attempting to portray a hard man image to Hutch, as he did repeatedly during the recordings.
Asked about the interview between Dowdall and Keane, Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin confirmed on Tuesday that a conversation did take place but that it was Dowdall who raised the issue of the attack on Jimmy’s house, not Keane.
The claim that Keane, a well-respected Sinn Féin official, raised the issue was “one of a number of lies that Jonathan Dowdall clearly put before the court”, Ó Broin told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
“It was Jonathan Dowdall who raised the issue of an attack on a family member’s home.”
Fairly or unfairly, Sinn Féin’s political rivals are sure to make hay out of the party’s alleged knowledge or otherwise of Dowdall’s criminal past.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar started that process on Tuesday afternoon. It is important “that we get more detail on Sinn Féin’s knowledge of Mr Dowdall’s actions”, he told the Dáil.
“It’s clear from Eoin Ó Broin’s interview this morning that there was more than an inkling, that there was knowledge.”