Two weeks ago, Jonathan Dowdall walked out of Limerick Prison and into the shadowy world of witness protection, a world he will probably have to occupy for the rest of his life. However, the State was still obliged to honour the final part of its agreement with him – admission into the Garda’s witness protection programme, officially known as the Witness Security Programme (WSP). Dowdall served nearly all his sentence in Limerick Prison, far away from Hutch’s Dublin support base. In 2005, O’Callaghan testified against two men in a murder trial and subsequently, at age 18, became the youngest person to go into Ireland’s witness protection programme. Judges have questioned whether granting protection to witnesses, many serious criminals themselves, is a form of inducement.

Source: The Irish Times November 02, 2025 16:00 UTC