A former Dublin City Councillor and his father who waterboarded a man have had their sentences reduced on appeal by almost half.
Jonathan and Patrick Dowdall with an address at Navan Road in Dublin, had previously been sentenced to 12 years and 8 years for false imprisonment and threats to kill.
The Special Criminal Court was previously shown a ten minute video in which Alex Hurley had his head covered with a tea towel and had water poured on it.
Jonathan Dowdall had his sentence reduced to seven years 11 months – while Patrick Dowdall had his sentence reduced to four years by the Court of Appeal.
During the trial, the court heard Jonathan Dowdall interrogated and tortured his victim by water boarding him at his house on the Navan Road in January 2015.
His 60-year-old father Patrick also pleaded guilty to the same charges.
When Dowdall’s home was searched in relation to another matter in March 2016, Gardaí found a USB stick in his kitchen.
On it they found a number of video clips showing a man whom they later identified as convicted fraudster Alex Hurley being water boarded.
The footage, recorded on January 15th 2015, showed him bound to an office chair in Mr. Dowdall’s garage.
It then showed the former Sinn Féin Councillor placing a towel over his head and pouring two buckets of water over him.
The court heard he suspected he was being scammed by Mr. Hurley who had called over to his house three days beforehand to look at a motorbike.
In his victim impact statement, Mr. Hurley said he was tortured to the point of death’s door.
