Security outside the Hutch trial at the Special Criminal Court. Image: RollingNews.ie GARDAÍ HAVE RECOVERED records from a tracker device deployed on former Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall’s jeep which were believed to have been destroyed, the Regency Hotel murder trial has heard.
The Garda Assistant Commissioner of Crime and Security was expected to give evidence this morning. However, Mr Gillane said he was not in a position to call Assistant Commissioner Orla McPartlin yet and the trial has been adjourned until 2pm. Retired Detective Inspector Ciaran Hoey testified last Wednesday that he carried out a review of all the data information held by the NSU in early 2020 to ensure they were in compliance with the Surveillance Act of 2009. Data records older than three years that were not required for prosecution or appeal were destroyed in order to improve storage and the security of data, he said.
On that day a total of 87 orders were signed off on with information provided on a spreadsheet relating to relevant dates and details of Dowdall’s jeep being tracked.Mr Hoey said he didn’t make Assistant Commissioner McPartlin aware that the current trial was proceeding, nor that the vehicle was related to Jonathan Dowdall or Gerard Hutch.
The non-jury court heard intelligence suggested that Dowdall travelled to Derry exactly a month before the murder to meet with a Real IRA member, and that on 18 January he again travelled to Derry, this time in the company of Mr Hutch.