Court hears Graham Dwyer represented firm at Liberty Hall meeting

A partner in the architect firm A&D Wejchert has told the Central Criminal Court that Graham Dwyer – who is charged with the murder of Dublin childcare worker Elaine O'Hara – represented his firm at a planning hearing in relation to the redevelopment of Liberty Hall in 2012.

Paddy Fletcher also told the jury that Mr Dwyer had been project architect for the construction of a sports hall at Carlow Institute of Technology.

Mr Fletcher said Mr Dwyer represented his firm at a Bord Pleanála oral hearing in relation to the redevelopment of Liberty Hall after Mr Fletcher had attended part of it, but then took annual leave.

Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, is charged with murdering Ms O’Hara, then aged 36, on August 22nd, 2012.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Mr Fletcher was asked whether staff members at the company kept electronic diaries and he said he believed some did, but that he had personally no interest in this.

Asked whether Mr Dwyer had kept such an electronic diary, Mr Fletcher said he believed Mr Dwyer had.

Mr Fletcher also recalled gardaí arriving at the office in February 2014 and finding a knife in the basement.

Another witness, Kevin Mullins, gave evidence that he was a member of the alt.com website and that he was approached by gardaí who had found his phone number in Elaine O'Hara's mobile phone.

Mr Mullins said, however, he did not know Ms O’Hara and had not met her. He agreed he had recognised a profile image shown to the court on Tuesday of a woman naked on the ground with her hands tied behind her back and her face away from the camera.

Mr Mullins agreed he had engaged in conversations with three or four people on the alt.com website and had exchanged numbers with a couple.

He had simultaneously been a member of another, similar, website.

The user names he had used included ‘youngandfitforit’, he said.

The court also heard evidence from Mark Kelly of the phone provider 3, in relation to a mobile phone bought in a 3 store on Grafton Street in Dublin on March 25th, 2011.

The pre-paid Nokia phone, registered in the name 'Goroon Caischoln', was bought for €99 with a separate €40 top-up credit.

Gerard McCormack, who was assistant manager in the Grafton Street store on the day the phone was sold, told the court that the only verification for the details on the written form that would subsequently be input into the computer system was the customer’s verbal verification.

Under cross examination by Kate McCormack for the defence, he agreed the birth date of April 4th, 1992 on the form would have put the customer’s age at 18.

Witness Gordon Chisholm, also an architect, gave evidence that he had first made Mr Dwyer's acquaintance when he came over to Dublin from the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow on a study trip with DIT Bolton Street.

He had renewed his acquaintance with Mr Dwyer and other students when he came to live in Ireland in 1994.

Mr Dwyer had been invited to his wedding in Kilkenny some years later but had not been able to attend, the court heard. Mr Dwyer had subsequently come to Kilkenny to congratulate him and give him a present but he did not recall any contact with him since.

Asked about a number of email addresses composed of variations on his own name, Mr Chisholm said these were not his email addresses and that he had never given anyone permission to set them up or to use any such addresses on his behalf.

Ms O’ Hara’s remains were found in forestry on Kilakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, on September 13th, 2013.

The trial is continuing before the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.