RTÉThere is no evidence apart from a statement by a former Sinn Féin councillor to link a man accused of murder to a key moment in the gangland crime, a court has heard.
A police officer agreed with the defence there “wasn’t a scintilla of evidence”, apart from his statement, that Jonathan Dowdall gave a hotel room key to Gerry Hutch.
The room was used by the murderers of David Byrne in 2016.
Gerry Hutch has denied murder.
David Byrne was killed during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Airport Hotel in February 2016.
Det Sgt Patrick O’Toole is giving evidence in a trial within a trial at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on the admissibility of Dowdall’s evidence.
Dowdall pleaded guilty last month to facilitating the murder.
He had been due to go in trial for murder, along with Gerry Hutch, but is now expected to give evidence for the prosecution.
The three-judge non-jury court has heard Gardaí (Irish police) secret recordings of conversations between Dowdall and Gerry Hutch in Dowdall’s jeep.
Det Sgt O’Toole admitted that Dowdall had told untruths in the recordings out of bravado, “to impress Gerry” and because he was on medication for depression.
He said Dowdall wanted to mediate between the Hutches and their gangland rivals, the Kinahans, before and after the murder of David Byrne during a boxing weigh-in.
Det Sgt O’Toole repeated that Dowdall was in fear for his life at the time.
The court also heard that Dowdall told Gardaí that he had nothing to do with David Byrne’s murder and that that he was prepared to go into the witness box to defend himself.
‘I talk a lot when I’m nervous’
That evidence was given by Det Cathal Connolly who took notes of conversations he had with Dowdall and his wife, Patricia.
In his garda statement, Dowdall said there were many lies in his secretly-recorded conversations with Gerry Hutch, the court heard.
Dowdall said he was trying to tell Gerry Hutch things he wanted to hear and because he was on tablets.
“I talk a lot when I’m nervous or uncomfortable,” the former Sinn Féin councillor said.
He said he knew nothing about guns or the AK47s used by the killers. He added he didn’t even know guns could be traced.
He said he was “ashamed” about comments he made about putting a bomb under a named person’s mobile home in Wexford.
He also said he lied about shooting at an uncle’s house.
