Bugged conversations between Dowdall and Hutch admissible at trial, judges rule

At the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, a three-judge panel has ruled that approximately ten hours of recorded conversations between murder accused Gerard Hutch and former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall are admissible as evidence at trial, despite establishing that the material was obtained unlawfully outside the State's jurisdiction. The recordings were captured by a garda bugging device planted on…