Crime Correspondent
The Special Criminal Court has decided it will listen to audio recordings of conversations between Gerard Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall, which gardaí made when they bugged the former Sinn Féin councillor’s jeep.
Mr Hutch’s defence counsel said it will be objecting to the admissibility of the evidence because it says eight of the ten hours of the recordings are while the jeep was in Northern Ireland.
Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan said the gardaí were aware they were operating outside the jurisdiction and this evidence will have to be excluded.
Prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane described it as the core part of the case.
Ms Justice Tara Burns said it would be preferable to hear all evidence and all the issues that arise in one go.
The court also heard evidence today from the garda surveillance officer who placed a tracker and a listening device on Mr Dowdall’s jeep.
Officer AQ, who cannot be identified by order of the court, said he put the tracker on the outside of the Land Cruiser and the bug inside to capture the conversation in the vehicle.
He said he would have listened to “bits of it”, but there was a specific number of people who listened to it.
He said the conversations could not be listened to live. Once the device was deployed, at certain stages it was downloaded and then uploaded onto the system in his office.
The listening device he said captures audio, but not locations and doesn’t work as a tracker.
The audio, he said, cannot be edited, cut or pasted.
He said the equipment was specifically purchased to be used in court.
“I can only change the name of the file when I upload it,” he said, “I can’t edit it”.
“The audio content is on a machine in my office, password protected by me. I’m the only person with access to that machine.”
He also said the listening device on the jeep could be turned off remotely and described the tracking device as “only an aid to surveillance” and “a minor aid”.
He said it tells you where the vehicle is, but it does not tell you who is in it or what they have done.
“The surveillance team are tracking the vehicle with their eyes,” he added.
“It will only tell them where it’s (the tracker) been, not where it’s going to go.”
He also said he handed four recordings over to another garda that were made on the 25, 26, and 27 February and 7 March 2016.
The surveillance officer also said he was on duty on 19 February 2016 when he saw Patrick Dowdall, Jonathan Dowdall’s father, walk from Baggot Road on to Blackhorse Avenue towards the Hole in Wall pub.
A few minutes later, he said, he saw him walk back towards Cumiskey’s pub carrying a plastic bag.
He was with convicted IRA man Shane Rowan and they were in conversation. He said he then lost sight of them but later saw Dowdall walk back with no plastic bag.
He could not find Rowan, while Dowdall went home to Cabra at 5.45pm.
Gerard Hutch denies the murder of David Byrne during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin on 5 February 2016.
Paul Murphy, aged 61, of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin, and 51-year-old Jason Bonney of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13, have both pleaded not guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of Mr Byrne by providing access to motor vehicles on 5 February 2016.
The trial continues.
Crime Correspondent
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