Hutch case witness in protection programme

STATE witness Jonathan Dowdall has been freed from prison - and will now begin a new life abroad.

- BY PAUL HEALY

STATE witness Jonathan Dowdall has been freed from prison and will now begin a new life abroad.

The former Sinn Fein councillor, 47, who infamously gave evidence in the murder trial of Gerry "The Monk" Hutch, walked free from Limerick prison under the cover of darkness - just over a week before his official release date.

Dowdall, who has served his four-year sentence for facilitating the room used by Regency Hotel gunman Kevin "Flatcap" Murray in the February 2016 gangland murder of David Byrne, was taken out of the prison by gardai and has now joined the witness protection programme.

This means it will now be illegal to identify his new home or identity.

It comes as Dowdall faces potential threats from the Hutch mob, the Kinahan cartel and even dissident republicans, all of whom he managed to upset over the years.

The taxpayer is funding the convicted torturer's new life, which sources say will be "like for like" to the one he lived here.