Updated at 10.56pm
THE PROSECUTION HAS finished its closing arguments to the jury in the Graham Dwyer trial.
Senior Counsel Seán Guerin said Mr Graham Dwyer arranged to bring Ms Elaine O’Hara to Kilakee mountain as part of a plan that was “thought out and elaborated upon over a lengthy period of time”.
Mentioning documents and texts used in evidence, he said that Mr Dwyer went about addressing elements of the plan that worried him.
Mr Guerin said questions were asked by Mr Dwyer such as: “Do I leave a body or leave a crime scene?” Other aspects were addressed, including the choice of victim: “If not someone willing available, who else? What other options available?” argued Mr Guerin, who said the idea of killing the estate agent Rowena Quinn was mentioned, as well as the possibility of a random attack on a hiker.
He claimed Mr Dwyer also carefully considered the location. One text sent to Ms O’Hara stated he had found a remote, isolated area. He also thought about what to use to disable a person, continued Mr Guerin, who said the question of using a hammer was mentioned, as was chloroform – a substance which he reminded members of the jury they had seen before being used by the accused in a video.
Mr Guerin also said that Mr Dwyer was concerned about how to deal with any blood at the scene and on himself.
The prosecution claims that Mr Dwyer ultimately needed a vulnerable person and he found that in Ms O’Hara. The prosecution stated that the Darci Day document mentions suicide in Ireland being common, and that it would just be “a matter of statistics” and nobody would “be overly concerned about”.
The jury was also shown an image of the red and black rucksack found in the Vartry reservoir in 2013.
Mr Guerin said this was “exactly the bag” Mr Dwyer had been seen carrying as he walked out of Elaine O’Hara’s apartment building.
The jury were told the bag had been found the phones, knives and some of Ms O’Hara’s possessions, including her keys.
Mr Guerin also pointed to Mrs Dwyer’s evidence about the spade.
“Mrs Dwyer says it’s her spade,” said Mr Guerin, adding that he would leave it to the jury to consider the evidence presented in relation to the paint samples taken from the spade found at the scene and the paint found on the fence at their home.
He asked the jury if they painted a fence or a wall, would they keep every single pot of paint they had used?
He said whether or not the paint on that particular part of the fence came from the same pot as the paint that was on the spade, was something they could really not know.
Pink underwear
Mr Guerin also addressed Mr Dwyer’s claims that someone else was involved with Ms O’Hara’s disappearance. He told gardaí that another person who was interested in “Real Madrid” and who “wore pink underwear” was involved.
However, Mr Guerin said that after trawling through documents, phones and data on multiple devices owned by Elaine O’Hara, there is nothing to suggest any relationship or person such as the one Mr Dwyer has suggested.
He claimed that if anyone partakes in any relationship these days, it would leave a trace on phones and on computers.
Suicidal?
Mr Guerin told the jury that although suicide was something that always concerned Ms O’Hara, she was not suicidal on 22 August 2012.
He said she had collected her medication, checked her hours at work and committed to taking part in the Tall Ships festival. He said she mentioned all this in the text messages.
He said she was fearful of talk of killing, and tells Mr Dwyer she is concerned about marks that would be left on her as she is taking part in the festival. The reply through text message tells her to trust him.
One text read out to the jury states that the plan is “like me pretending to do someone for real… I want you to think this is it”.
“Right up until the fatal stabbing Elaine O’Hara this is part of the play, part of their relationship… she doesn’t see it for what it is,” said Mr Guerin.
He points to what he says is key evidence – a text message from Ms O’Hara asking what time they close the recycling centre where she has parked her car at Shanganagh.
“Ask yourself if that is someone who is suicidal?” Mr Guerin addressed the jury.
He said she wanted to ensure that she would get home, rest and get up and go to an event she had been looking forward to, he said.
“When engaging with the evidence I don’t know how you could say she was suicidal,” said Mr Guerin.
He said the person who had the phones is key, adding “there isn’t anyone else who had the phones other than Mr Dwyer”.
Who had the phones is who took Elaine O’Hara.
Mr Guerin said Mr Dwyer is “connected beginning, middle and end to the disappearance and death Elaine O’Hara”.
“He said he had nothing to do with it… he was telling lies… a series of lies he thought long and hard about,” said Mr Guerin.
I ask you to take the evidence at face value… the unguarded, open explanation of the intention to kill in the text messages, documents and emails…
He said the videos, made by Mr Dwyer and shown to the jury, are “his images, his desires, his fantasies”. They show a “sadist, brutal pervert with nothing on his mind other than murder”, added Mr Guerin.
“There’s evidence to satisfy you that he’s guilty of murder,” he concluded.
Yesterday, the Senior Counsel spoke to the jury for up to three hours, telling its members that it was the prosecution’s case that Mr Graham Dwyer killed Ms Elaine O’Hara for his own sexual gratification by luring her up to Killakee mountain.
He said yesterday that that it was “impossible” to conclude any other scenario other than the phones, which sent explicit texts to Elaine O’Hara’s phone, was acquired by Mr Dwyer.
He claimed Mr Dwyer exploited Ms O’Hara’s mental health issues and it was an “abusive” and “manipulative” relationship.
Mr Guerin told the jury that Mr Dwyer was ‘wickedness hiding behind a mask of pity’.
Mr Dwyer (42) is charged with murdering Dubliner Elaine O’Hara at Killakee, Rathfarnham, Dublin on 22nd August 2012.
The Cork-born father of three of Kerrymount Close, Foxrock in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 36-year-old childcare worker on that date.
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