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Court hears ex-Sinn Féin councillor waterboarded man over motorbike sale

A man who was interrogated, threatened and waterboarded by a former Sinn Féin councillor s...
Newstalk
Newstalk

21.22 28 Apr 2017


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Court hears ex-Sinn Féin counc...

Court hears ex-Sinn Féin councillor waterboarded man over motorbike sale

Newstalk
Newstalk

21.22 28 Apr 2017


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A man who was interrogated, threatened and waterboarded by a former Sinn Féin councillor says he was "tortured to the point of death’s door".

Jonathan Dowdall and his father Patrick admitted falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill the man at Jonathan's home on the Navan Road in Dublin.

Video footage of Alex Hurley being waterboarded by Jonathan Dowdall was shown to the judges at today's sentence hearing.

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The 40-year-old father of four was convinced Mr Hurley was trying to con him in relation to the sale of his motorbike.

On January 15th 2015, he subjected him to a three-hour ordeal in the garage of his home that involved being tied to a chair and water boarded.

He also threatened to chop him up and feed him to his dogs if he did not admit he was a thief - which he eventually did.

Jonathan's father Patrick was also there.

He had silver pliers and threatened to cut off his fingers if he did not tell Jonathan what he wanted to hear.

During the interrogation, Mr Hurley said he was told he was stupid for messing with the head of the IRA - and that Jonathan was good friends with Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald.

Both men expressed their remorse through their lawyers in court today and will be sentenced on May 19th.


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