Former SF Councillor and father to be be sentenced next month for false imprisonment and threat to kill
A former Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor and his father will be sentenced next month after imprisoning and threatening to kill a man.
Jonathan and Patrick Dowdall waterboarded him and threatened to chop him up and kill his family after they found out he was a con artist, the court heard.
Alexander Hurley, a convicted fraudster, went to Jonathan Dowdall’s home on the Navan Road in Dublin on Jan 12, 2015.
He pretended to be a barrister who was interested in buying a motorbike the former Sinn Féin Councillor had advertised on DoneDeal.
Jonathan looked him up online and found complaints from people who claimed they had been scammed by him.
He invited him back to his house three days later and subjected him to a three-hour ordeal that involved being tied to a swivel chair in his garage and waterboarded.
The 40-year-old father of four also threatened to chop him up if he did not admit to being a thief – which he eventually did.
The court heard Jonathan’s father Patrick threatened to cut his fingers off with pliers.
Both men pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and threatening to kill Mr Hurley and both will be sentenced next month.
