Courts

Graham Dwyer’s appeal against Elaine O’Hara murder to be heard in January

Appeal centres around admission of mobile phone call data records at trial

Graham Dwyer was convinced of the murder of childcare worker Elaine O'Hara. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Tue Dec 12 2023 - 12:58

The Supreme Court will hear Graham Dwyer’s appeal against his 2015 conviction for the murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara next month.

The appeal, which was granted earlier this year, centres around the admission of mobile phone call data records at his criminal trial.

The Supreme Court had fixed the 16th of January for the hearing of the appeal, which has been set down for one day.

The matter was briefly mentioned before Mr Justice Maurice Collins on Tuesday morning.

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The judge confirmed a timetable for the exchange of legal submissions in the case.

The judge also asked the DPP and Dwyer’s legal team to see if the Irish Human Rights Equality Commission and Equality Commission (IHREC) wish to take part in the hearing.

“The court is not inviting IHREC to get involved. However, if it does wish to participate it will need to get any submissions to the court and the parties as soon as possible,” he said.

Remy Farrell SC for Dwyer and Sean Guerin SC for the DPP said that they did not know if IHREC wished to get involved, but said that they would make inquiries regarding the commission’s intentions.

Earlier this year the Court of Appeal dismissed Dwyer’s conviction appeal on all grounds, including on the admissibility of the call data evidence.

The court agreed with the prosecution that there was enough evidence to support the conviction, even if the disputed call data evidence had been excluded.

The limited call data evidence in controversy was not very significant and was properly admitted into evidence, the Court of Appeal held.

There was other evidence to link Dwyer to two phones that formed part of the prosecution case that was “as powerful and perhaps more compelling”, the appeal court also found.

The Supreme Court decided it should hear Dwyer’s further appeal.

It held that “significant issues of general public importance arise” as to the admissibility of the call data evidence retained and accessed under a 2011 Irish law that was struck down by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in 2014.

The court said it is also important to properly characterise the illegality involved, considering the data was obtained in compliance with the provisions of the 2011 Communications (Retention of Data) Act but where the Act itself was subsequently found to be inconsistent with EU law.

The scope and application of legislation governing courts’ directions in conviction appeals will also be considered by the Supreme Court.

Dwyer’s lawyers submitted to the Supreme Court that the Court of Appeal misunderstood the CJEU’s decision regarding the 2011 law and incorrectly considered that the trial judge had a discretion to admit the phone call records.

They also submitted that the matter will probably require legal questions to be referred to the CJEU.

Dwyer’s application was opposed by the Director of Public Prosecution.

Dwyer was convicted of murder by a unanimous jury verdict in March 2015 and sentenced to life in prison. Ms O’Hara, a 36-year-old childcare worker, was last seen in August 2012 in a public park in Shanganagh, South Dublin.

Some of her remains were found on Killakee mountain just over a year later and she was identified from dental records.

Before his conviction appeal at the Court of Appeal, Dwyer took High Court civil proceedings that successfully challenged the 2011 Irish law under which the mobile phone metadata was retained and accessed by gardaí investigating Ms O’Hara’s death.

The civil proceedings progressed to the Supreme Court and the CJEU, meaning his separate conviction appeal was not heard by the Court of Appeal until late last year.

Dwyer denies murdering Ms O’Hara.

He also denies he bought and used a Nokia phone found in Vartry Reservoir in Co Wicklow in 2013.

His trial was told that the phone was used to send Ms O’Hara messages, including one about stabbing, culminating in a text dated August 22nd, 2012 – the last day she was seen – to “go down to the shore and wait”.

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