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AFTER 45 DAYS the trial of Graham Dwyer has concluded in Court 13 of the Criminal Courts of Justice.
It took the prosecution 37 days to present 194 witnesses and more than 320 exhibits to the jury, claiming the 42-year-old architect killed Elaine O’Hara for his own sexual gratification.
The defence took just under 30 minutes to make their case, with Dwyer pleading not guilty to the charges.
After three days, the jury reached their unanimous verdict that the architect was guilty of murdering Elaine O’Hara and leaving her body on Killakee mountain.
It was a trial that shocked and appalled all who came in contact with it, with one garda claiming he had never come across a case even close to similar to this before during his whole service.
Each day, new, shocking and graphic revelations were heard. Explicit and often horrifying text messages were read out in court.
Ms O’Hara’s family, seated on the victim support bench, just a few short metres from the man accused of killing their loved one, heard every detail of her personal life – from her medical problems and mental health issues, as well as detailed accounts of her sexual fantasies and the desire to be tied up.
Members of the Dwyer family, his brother, his sister and father, also attended court throughout. Both families seated just a few steps from each other, both finding themselves dealing with an unprecedented and almost unbearable situation.
The families also had to hear the harrowing correspondence between the two.
A warning to “the squeamish”
Justice Tony Hunt warned the jury prior to the commencement of trial that those that were squeamish would find it difficult. That was not an understatement on his part.
From day one, the prosecution led with shocking text messages recovered from mobile phones they attributed to the accused:
You should help me inflict pain on you and help me with my fantasy. Blood turns me on.
My urge to rape, stab or kill is huge. You have to help me control or satisfy it.
The court heard that there were also a text message discussion in 2011 relating to a case of a different woman who had been stabbed. Ms O’Hara received a message stating:
I am watching the case with interest… I would have loved to stab her… I can imagine the knife going in and out… lucky guy.
These were just a warning sample of what was to come in the trial.
Senior Counsel for the prosecution, Sean Guerin, told the court that the relationship between the deceased and Dwyer involved BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism and masochism).
It was clear from that point that this trial was unlike any court case heard in Ireland before.
Justice Hunt enforced strict media guidelines, warning those that breached court rules would be held in contempt.
Nothing heard in court while the jury is absent can be reported while the trial is ongoing.
Graham Dwyer’s jail accommodation
On the second day of the trial, Remy Farrell, senior counsel defending, raised an issue with the judge before the jury entered the court.
He said that due to the expected media coverage, Graham Dwyer had to be moved from his usual cell in Cloverhill prison and placed on the D2 landing. He claimed that Dwyer was provided no pillow or bedding and was woken up every two hours by a flashing blue light.
Dwyer also had “no access to his books” or trial notes. His counsel said it was a “totally intolerable” to go through the trial where he is woken up every 20 minutes at night. He said that if it persisted it would be an issue.
The judge urged the prosecution to get in touch with the relevant prison services to sort the matter out stating that if it persisted it would impinge on the prosecution’s case if Mr Dwyer was not in a fit state to sit through the trial.
The brave testimony of Elaine O’Hara’s father
The court was highly charged at times, with a tense atmosphere, particularly when Elaine O’Hara’s father and Graham Dwyer’s wife gave evidence.
Frank O’Hara recounted how his daughter had a history of mental illness over the years, having attempted to take her life on a number of occasions.
Describing his relationship with his daughter, he said he would speak to Elaine every day and see her three or four times per week. He told the court that he considered that he might have been a “best friend” to his daughter.
“She disclosed information to me in early 2008. She was in my house one morning and we had an argument, maybe about money – she was poor at having money – and she said: ‘I am seeing someone – a professional’.”
He said he tried to get more information from his daughter. “I said: ‘Is he married?’ and she said yes.”
There was then a long pause. The court was silent.
Mr O’Hara, visibly emotional, held back tears but broke down as he told the court that his daughter said to him:
He ties me up and masturbates over me – we’ve never had sex.
Mr O’Hara told the court that she had said that the man she was seeing was an architect from Foxrock. ”I was shocked,” he said, adding later in cross examination that her revelations to him had left him “shattered”.
Sympathy for Graham Dwyer’s wife
The day in which Gemma Dwyer, Graham’s wife gave evidence, was particularly fraught. The court was packed as the word had spread she would be in court among both the media and the public.
Instead of sitting in the section for witnesses, she was escorted into court by a garda from the victim support unit. She shuffled through the busy court room, her head kept down, not even looking up as she passed her husband sitting in the dock.
Seated just a few metres away from her husband, she placed her shaky hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth.
There was a palpable sense of sympathy in the court that day for Mrs Dwyer, borne out in a respectful silence.
At one point, when being questioned by the judge she named her two children, and became visibly upset.
The judge reassured her not to be worried, stating that the media could not report their names.
Throughout her evidence, the toll the case was having on her, a mother of two young children, could be seen. At times, the emotion seemed too great that she held her head in her hands and wept. As soon as her evidence concluded she was ushered out of the court, again, without a glance at her husband.
Throughout her evidence there was no notable reaction by Mr Dwyer.
Explicit images and video
The content in the final days was just as difficult, with the jury being shown explicit images and sexual video content, and more messages recounted to the court about stabbing and the need to kill.
Items on his hard drive included stories about killing an American woman and having sex with her corpse. Another detailed the abduction of a woman and raping her in a hotel room.
The court was cleared for the hearing of some evidence, such as the videos which appeared to show Graham Dwyer stabbing Elaine O’Hara during sex while she screamed.
Another video showed Dwyer knocking himself out with chloroform, while another video described a man, identified as Mr Dwyer kneeling behind Elaine O’Hara and placing a plastic bag over her head.
The court was told the final messages sent to O’Hara were:
Ok, take only keys and slave phone. Make your way on foot to park next door.
and
Go down to shore and wait.
The defence called just three witnesses. Mary Crosbie, the first witness called by Remy Farrell told the court about her visit to her mother’s grave on 22 August 2012, the day Elaine O’Hara was discharged from a mental health hospital.
She said she saw a woman upset at one of the graves but as she did not know Ms O’Hara she could not confirm that it was her.
Two sheep farmers were also called and questioned about the possibility of any of their sheep dying in 2011 or 2012. This was in relation to a text message now believed to have been sent by Dwyer, where he said he would love to sink a knife into a dead sheep that he had come across.
In its closing argument the defence urged the jury to acquit Mr Dwyer because of a lack of forensic evidence. The defence barrister admitted that some of the evidence put to them during the trial was difficult, unpleasant, distasteful and repellent.
While he said that the jury might already have made up their mind that Mr Dwyer is “so disgusting he should be locked up”, he said thoughts like this had to be put aside.
He claimed that there was just one theory being put forward by the gardai and prosecution after Ms O’Hara’s remains were found and that was that Mr Dwyer had killed her. He said this was despite suicide being the main thought after her disappearance. He said the theory of suicide was being “brushed under the carpet”.
Nonetheless, the jury deliberated for just over seven hours before finding Graham Dwyer guilty of the murder of Elaine O’Hara.
His sentencing – a mandatory life sentence – will be heard on 20 April.
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Well as much as I cant stand that British Home Secretary I agree with her here. You make your bed when you join IS . Our government is moving hell and earth to get the the Irish IS bride home from Syria at the taxpayers expense. You couldnt make it up.
@Stephen Mc Partlin: is there legal grounds for refusing her entry back into Ireland?
@Stephen Mc Partlin: I don’t see hell and earth being moved to bring her back
@GrahamMManning: No. The Brits brought in new laws allowing them to strip citizens of their nationality. Our weak government hasn’t had the guts to do the same.
@Ian Breathnach: incorrect, she had duel citizenship which allowed the UK to revoke her British citizenship otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to stop her returning.
@Stephen Mc Partlin: you’re right, you couldn’t make it up because it’s not what’s happening.
The fact is that she has Irish citizenship only and the government can not revoke her citizenship and make her stateless, that would be in volition of numerous international laws.
In short, the Irish government can’t stop her returning but they could look at charging her if there’s proof she was directly involved in ISIS.
@Stephen Mc Partlin: the Irish one should’ve had more sense. She’s a grown woman. The English one was 15 and became radicalised like. There’s more of a case for the English girl to be taken back.
@Stephen Mc Partlin: I am total agreement with you. I can’t stand the awful Patel but in this instance she is right.
@Bruce Van der Gutschmitzer: no way she is security risk to people. I think she is probably safer where she is than if she gets back to the UK where she would be in danger from ex Isis followers.
@Ian Breathnach: so she can come home. We’ve no obligation to help but if she gets here she has to be allowed in. Beyond that prosecute her if there’s a crime that can be proven and keep her under surveillance until the security services judge her not a threat. Setting a precedence for allowing governments to render people stateless if not the way forward.
@GrahamMManning: Yea she’s a buck toothed terrorist sympathiser.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: no, she was entitled to apply for dual British/Bangladeshi citizenship but didn’t do so and the Bangladeshi government has stated she won’t be allowed enter the country. She is a British citizen so why should any other country have to take responsibility for her?
@EillieEs: Exactly. Zero sympathy for her or her “cause”, but how typical of the British to try to wash their hands of the problem and deny her citizenship.
@Darren: and that means we should????
@EillieEs: I’m referring to lisa not the uk one
@Stephen Mc Partlin: wow moving hell and earth there. Article from July, they must be getting her to walk from there
@Stephen Mc Partlin: You cannot be an Irish person.No way.Because to give this woman any credience is to me an Irishman abhorrent.This woman was happy to starve us again(remember 1845) to get Brexit through.She would be a mini Trump if allowed too much leeway.And you (if you’re Irish),cop on boy.She warrants NO credit from any true Irish person.
@Billy McNamara: who are you to question If Iam an Irish person which Iam of course and proud to be . If you read my post in the first place you’d see that I only agree with her decision in this instance. I dont need a history lesson from you either ‘ boy ‘.
@GrahamMManning: dont know about legal grounds but definitely on moral grounds this woman should never be allowed set foot in Ireland again
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Should be charged with aiding genocide , by membership of ISIS . And held in UN Prision .
@Philip Siggins: thankfully “morals” are now laws. We didn’t end up in the greatest of spots when they were
@Jim Buckley Barrett: but they should just leave her there until Ryanair start flights to Syria and she can buy her own ticket home. She had no trouble getting there
@Shane McGettrick: Its far from washing their hands . Shes a treat to the UK Priti Patel is 100% correct
@Billy McNamara: Billy off you go lad and take your meds . You can only be an Irishman if you conform to your ideas of one . Heard that enough times on here
@Stephen Mc Partlin: I hope you learn to read. If you read the article you posted, you would have seen that the government has NO plans to send anyone from here. It said if she got here she would be allowed in, which is her right. No signs of heaven and earth moving. Fake news
Good call… Excellent
@Leo Lalor: ISIS raped Yazidi children. What kind of responsible adult would run to a group that were raping children and selling girls and women as sex slaves.
@The long walk home☘️: she was a child when she ran to them
@bmul: ok shes now 19 nearly 20 . She could have come back at anytime in between but she only wants to come back now because the Caliphate is dust
A home secretary who was sacked by the previous PM for going on a solo run with a foreign government and wanted to starve Ireland to get us to concede on the backstop probably isn’t the best person to be issuing sermons on national security and on those who would do harm to others. Interesting how many people think Beggum knew exactly what she was doing at 15 but Greta Thunberg at 16 is only a tool for others who shouldn’t be taken seriously. I suppose you could also argue there are those who argue Beggum was young and impressionable while Thunberg is her own person. Plenty of hypocrisy to go around we’ll uncover plenty more if this precedent to make somebody stateless leads to it happening more. It’s all very well to agree with it when it’s used against somebody like this but it wont always be a right wing government in power and if they can used it for populist propaganda so can those on the left.
@Tom Thumb: most intelligent comment I’ve ever seen on the journal. I’m dying to see the counter arguments..
It would be interesting if she took a court case about this and I don’t know of any reason why she couldnt. When Brexit gets delayed again at the end of October this could end up getting to the European courts. She is an EU citizen. Wouldn’t that be just something !
@Tom Thumb:
The centuries ideology that Beggum is a part of is an all encompassing one that seeks to control just about every aspect of ones life, from politics(political Islam) to how you dress, eat, even who you should and shouldn’t associated with(Sharia). Climate change activism/hysteria isn’t on a par with Islamic fundamentalism, so no, I wouldn’t take Thunberg seriously, she’s being unfortunately used by the left and fake liberals for their agenda, a child pawn.
You’re not born into climate change activism, you can remove it from you life anytime you wish, as for certain sects of Islam, not so much.
@➕The Gray➕: Thanks for proving my point.
@➕The Gray➕: who exactly (names please) is controlling Thunberg? Are the same dastardly people stopping you from getting to Cork?
@GrahamMManning: Thunberg’s frequent handler is Luisa-Marie Neubauer, an operative from the ONE Movement. Neubauer can be seen behind Thunberg at many of her public events.The Gates Foundation admits on their official website that the ONE Movement is a collaboration between some of the world’s richest and most powerful interests, including Bill Gates, Bono and infamous progressive financier George Soros.
@JimmyMc: “handler”? That an official title? “operative”? Seriously is 007 involved? Gates and Soros are evil??? Bono fair nuff
@Adam: Agreed Tom! very interesting and well-reasoned, touching on the hypocrisy around this issue and the very dangerous precedent it sets to make people stateless, I’d imagine the counter arguments in typical journal fashion will be composed of thinly-veiled racism, rambling nonsense and will somehow, inexplicably manage to attack people on welfare.
I hope our Government will say the same about the Isis woman from Ireland
@Alan Scott: Not a hope in that happening.
@Alan Scott: v bad precedent to set. If she’s guilty of something, however hard to prove, then allow her home and prosecute her.
@GrahamMManning: Well it’s a good thing you or the Looney left dont make decisions for our country, we have enough homegrown terrorists already without ISIS sympathising nutjobs walking our streets.
@Darren: you do realise what I’ve outlined is essentially what happening? So does that mean the “looney left” is in charge or you’re wrong? Either is a scary option right?
@Alan Scott: she doesn’t even have impressionable youth as defence. Maybe diminished mental capacity alright.
Ha ha.good enough for her.
@Tony Hanratty: she’s a British citizen, doesn’t hold dual citizenship with Bangladesh whose government has said she won’t be allowed enter the country, so why should any other country but the UK have to deal with her?
She shouldn’t have booked with Thomas Cook.
I don’t think it’s right to strip citizens of their citizenship in general, but the State (be it the UK or Ireland) should not be going to any significant effort to *help* them get home, even if to face prosecution.
In Begum’s case it’s harder to have sympathy for her because she comes off as very disingenuous and opportunistic saying what she needs to say to save herself: the comments about severed heads only to backtrack, saying she was just an innocent housewife when this is contradicted by many others who have little if anything to gain from lying. She remains a threat to public security, which as a citizen from birth, shouldn’t preclude her from re-entry to face prosecution. But it should completely preclude her from any assistance in getting to the border.
@Gerard: I don’t think its right to behead any person eighter if these people were to still have power a lot more beheading’s would have taken place and these women would have been at the side of the fella taking the action So keep them out of this Country as the UK has done.
@Alan Scott: so the country where these beheadings took place should be expected to allow these foreign nationals to remain?
The correct decision was made
@WreckDefier: correct for whom? She was involved with a group who destroyed a country she had no ties to and yet you think they should allow her to remain there? She is a British citizen so only the UK should have to deal with her.
@EillieEs: I suspect this has more to do with laying down a marker for others who might contemplate something similar than this particular individual.
With the fall of ISIS both in IRAQ & Syria and them losing territory, Is this the reason both Irish &British women want to come home to their prospective countries ?
As for FFG they are failing over each other in order to bring the Irish one home, And if it does happen get prepared for the interview with Tubs on the LLS.
Tough call. She could have been brainwashed by the group to go over and as a child, it would have been quite easy to do. But understand the rationale… Tough call none the less.
@Peter Cavey: tough call…no…it’s a no brainer
@Peter Cavey: She could always jump off a cliff plenty of them over there.
@SFNutters: she’s a British citizen so why should any other country have to deal with her?
@Peter Cavey: a very easy call. If IS would’ve been successful it wouldn’t have been a tough call for them whether or not to chop off your head
@EillieEs: not any more…sure she can just stay where she is…she went there of her own accord.
@SFNutters: you think Syria should have to keep her when they are the ones who suffered most under ISIS?
Get in there ya little pup before your mother sees ya.
She’s in her happy place. Why would she want to go back to the evil west?
Good call
Patel might (but hasn’t, yet, to be fair) grandstand over this but the bottom line is that this woman had dual nationality after being granted UK citizenship. Her UK citizenship was then revoked which rightly allows the UK authorities to refuse her return. The obvious difference with the Irish case is that Smith was born here and is Irish by birth. Her nationality cannot be revoked and she is therefore entitled to return….although she can walk here as far as I’m concerned.
Best choice they made thus far…
It is interesting to contrast the reaction in Britain to this obviously impressionable and foolish teenage girl who got pregnant but didnt personally kill anyone with the reaction of many in the UK to charges against Soldier F who killed innocents in Derry. The girl will pay for the rest of her life for her teenage foolishness, those clamouring for that are probably the same people who want the soldier’s actions as a very young man to be forgiven.
@Squiddley Diddley: She will be rewarded for the rest of her life by many in the Muslim community who will view her as a jihadi who has done her bit to further the expansion of Islam.
@Philip Siggins: I think you’ll find the Muslim community generally regard Isis as dangerous nutters.
Fault her join isis that British secretary home tear her British passport finish
What a shame to treat the poor woman in this way shame on the UK
@Liam Mc Meel: kop on. U have no idea
@Liam Mc Meel: sorry, what? Can you explain the ‘poor woman’ part? Or just explain your thoughts in general on the situation. I’m genuinely intrigued as to your thoughts and how you came to your decision on said thoughts.
@Liam Mc Meel: sarcasm?
@Liam Mc Meel: she wants to return to the UK to protect her child.
I don’t want her to to protect mine.
@Liam Mc Meel: Are u trying to wind up the Bs and Gs on the coment line ?
@Brian Farrell: her child is dead
@Liam Mc Meel: I hope you’re being sarcastic
@Gus Sheridan: which one.
Fighting fire with fire only makes more fire, if they treat her with what we like to claim is the civilised west maybe we promote what we claim to be a better way of life. Treating harshly only enforces extreme views, you can’t have it both ways.
Petel is a vile individual
@Ken Adams: no it doesn’t that why we use fire breaks to fight fire with fire
@Ken Adams: we are civilised that’s what separates us from these troglodytes, but it’s that very civility that has been exploited to the fullest and used against us.
Just matter of time before some govt idiot will pipe up that she would be welcome in Ireland along with our own isis bride that Leo is fawning over….
What is it about right leaning women? Mostly stunning looking.
Shes probably already in a safe house with new ID, us the peassnts will. Never know
I thought we were done and over with her? Ugh, seeing her stupid Jihadi face has ruined my day. Thanks, media,
We will take her
Out own Irish ISIS tramp , wants to come home , that’s nice , after her organization raped , and enslaved children . Butchered there way across Syria abd,Iraq.
Hahahahaha hahahahaha
Another barrow load of dish for the legal eagles and she’ll win.
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