Two weeks ago, Jonathan Dowdall walked out of Limerick Prison and into the shadowy world of witness protection, a world he will probably have to occupy for the rest of his life.
Dowdall (47), a former Sinn Féin councillor, was jailed for four years in 2022 for his role in assisting in the planning of the Regency Hotel shooting in Dublin, which left Kinahan associate David Byrne dead. Dowdall avoided a murder charge by agreeing to give evidence for the State in the prosecution of Gerry Hutch for the shooting.
The Special Criminal Court eventually acquitted Hutch, ruling that Dowdall’s evidence could not be relied upon. However, the State was still obliged to honour the final part of its agreement with him – admission into the Garda’s witness protection programme, officially known as the Witness Security Programme (WSP).
Dowdall served nearly all his sentence in Limerick Pris
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