A man accused of aiding the Regency Hotel hit-team escape alleges his father was driving his jeep on portions of CCTV shown in court.
Jason Bonney is accused of facilitating the murder of David Byrne at Dublin’s Regency Hotel by driving his BMW to St Vincents GAA Club and aiding the hit-team escape following the shooting on February 5, 2016.
But at yesterday’s hearing of the Special Criminal Court trial, right before the prosecution was about to call its last witness, Bonney’s defence indicated he was contesting some of the CCTV footage in relation to the movements of his jeep that day.
Read more: Dowdall claimed alleged meeting in which The Monk 'confessed' to Regency shooting happened on day Eddie Hutch was murdered
The court has already been played in detail footage of Bonney’s jeep leaving his home in Drumnigh Road in Portmarnock on that morning – and then further footage of its movements through Dublin and into the St Vincent’s GAA car park, where the hit-team ran through an alleyway and met it along with a convoy of other cars.
However, John Fitzgerald SC put it to Garda Michelle Purcell, who has been bringing the court through all of the CCTV footage, that officers did not identify Bonney at any other point in the footage, other than at his house in Drumnigh Road that morning. Garda Purcell confirmed it was the case.
Mr Fitzgerald then further stated: “Our case is that the vehicle was driven south of Newbrook avenue by his father and he is seen doing so.” However Garda Purcell said she “can’t confirm that,” and the senior counsel indicated he intends to speak about the matter in detail at a later juncture.
Bonney, who denies involvement and claims he was on a building site at the time, has already notified the court that he wishes to call an alleged alibi as a witness. He is on trial along with Paul Murphy, who denies using his taxi to aid the hit-team in escaping that day.
Gerry “The Monk” Hutch meanwhile is accused of the murder of David Byrne – and is now in the 11th week of his trial. Later in the day the Prosecution called its final witness in the case, Sarah Skedd, a senior crime analyst who was attached to the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.
She was tasked with analysing timelines, maps, sources of information, CCTV, witness statements, audio logs, garda observations – and phone data in the case.
As part of her role she collated phone call, text and internet data from seized phones in the case and analysed their location based off how they pinged from various cell towers across four counties – Dublin, Monaghan, Louth and Donegal.
The court heard Ms Skedd looked in detail at the journey made by Jonathan Dowdall and his father Patrick to Strabane on February 4, 2016 – the day before the Regency Hotel shooting occurred.
Ms Skedd told the court she dealt with Meteor call data records for phone numbers attached to Jonathan Dowdall, his wife Patricia and his father Patrick on this date. She created a table containing the call data records for all three, along with tolling data and evidence provided by gardai in chronological order.
The court has already heard Dowdall claim he and his father went to Strabane that day to meet with an individual named Kevin Tyrone, who he said he was asked to meet to try and bring about peace in the Kinahan Hutch feud.
However, Dowdall said he now believes he was used as a “gilly” and while on the journey home his father, who was in the vehicle with him, was asked to book a room in the Regency Hotel.
His father then rang Patricia Dowdall who rang the Regency Hotel and initially arranged the booking – with Jonathan Dowdall claiming he then drove his father to the hotel later that evening and he paid for the room in cash.
The room was subsequently used by one of the hit-team involved in the shooting the following day – Strabane native Kevin Murray – who died from complications of motor neurone disease before he could be extradited to the Republic.
Going through the phone data in detail, Ms Skedd outlined how phone calls, texts and internet data from Jonathan, Patrick and Patricia Dowdall indicated their locations and the time in which events occurred on that day.
Having collated all the information Ms Skedd put together two maps – one showing the journey up to Strabane and one showing the journey back to Dublin. She marked on the map Dowdall’s home at 217 Navan Road,the location of the M1 Toll, and all the cells that the pair hit on the journey.
Ms Skedd also outlined how cars alleged to have been driven by Murphy and Bonney appeared to move around Dublin’s north city before and after the Regency shooting. She also referred to “a flat cap male” seen on CCTV getting into Bonney’s black BMW X5 after the murder and being driven away.
The trial continues today.
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