Jonathan Dowdall claims Gerry Hutch told him he shot David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.

He claims he told him during a meeting in a park just a few days after the attack.

The trial has already heard ten hours of a secretly recorded conversation between Dowdall and Mr Hutch as they drove to and from Northern Ireland one month later.

If he did confess, then Mr Hutch’s barrister, Brendan Grehan SC, put it to the witness that he would have mentioned it during that journey in some shape or form.

Dowdall replied by saying, “he told me what he told me” and he said he didn’t bring it up because he wouldn’t have asked him questions about it.

Given the fact that Gerry Hutch called to Dowdall’s house a few days after the alleged confession, and after the witness had accepted he’s often arrive announced, Mr Hutch’s barrister suggested there would be no reason to meet him in a park.

Dowdall insisted that’s where he asked him to meet him and he said he didn’t know his reasons for choosing the park.

Main image: Special Criminal Court. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie