Graham Dwyer was "a sadistic and brutal pervert with nothing on his mind other than murder" and had given consideration to whether he could make a killing look like a suicide, prosecution counsel in his trial for the alleged murder of Elaine O'Hara has said.
Seán Guerin SC was concluding his closing speech on the 41st day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Guerin said Mr Dwyer’s plan to kill someone included planning how to deal with blood at the scene and on himself and also required picking someone who was vulnerable.
He addressed the question of how Mr Dwyer arranged to bring Ms O’Hara to Killakee and his purpose in doing so on August 22nd, 2012. He said what happened on that day fitted into a plan that had been elaborated and thought about over a lengthy period.
There were a number of elements to the plan that Mr Dwyer had clearly given consideration to, including who the victim should be and where the killing should take place.
Documents found on his computer equipment, as well as text messages outlined in the case, showed he had given consideration to his choice of victim. The documents included “Killing Darci”, darcy.doc and “Jenny’s first rape”.
Mr Dwyer, the prosecution alleged, had also given consideration to how to disable his victim and whether, for example, he could deal a blow with a hammer, although that might be “messy”.
Chloroform
He had clearly experimented with chloroform with a view to using it for that purpose, Mr Guerin said.
He said Mr Dwyer had ordered a hunting knife, which would be part of his “toolkit”. The evidence did not lend itself, however, to showing that that particular knife had been used to kill Ms O’Hara.
Key messages to Ms O’Hara prior to carrying out his plan to kill her included that she should leave her iPhone at home, Mr Guerin said.
“Everything points to this carefully elaborated and thoughtful plan being implemented on the day.”
Mr Guerin also asked the jury to consider whether Ms O’Hara was suicidal.He recalled the evidence of Ms O’Hara’s father, Frank, who had said she had been in “extremely good form” when she left his house on August 22nd, 2012. She had been looking forward to the Tall Ships festival the following day.
Probably the most defining feature of suicide was “a loss of hope”, the loss of a feeling that there was anything to look forward to, and the loss of a feeling that the person had anything to contribute.Ms O’Hara, Mr Guerin said, was someone who had plans for the next day. “She has not given up on life or hope.”
He told the jury there was no way that what had happened to Ms O’Hara on August 22nd, 2012 happened “on her own”.
“If she had the assistance of someone, then who was that person?” He said all the evidence pointed to it being Graham Dwyer.
Mr Dwyer had suggested it was another man who was interested in Real Madrid, but Mr Guerin asked whether this had any basis.
Ms O’Hara’s entire history had been revealed through her devices. Mr Guerin asked whether a “mountain of evidence” could be blown away by a random dressing gown and underpants found in the Vartry reservoir.
Rucksack
Showing the jury an image of the red-and-black rucksack found in the reservoir in 2013, Mr Guerin said this was “exactly the bag” Mr Dwyer had been seen walking out of Ms O’Hara’s apartment building carrying.
They knew what that bag had been found with, including the phones and Ms O’Hara’s possessions, including her keys.
The bag allowed the jury to say not just that Mr Dwyer had a relationship with Ms O’Hara but could connect him “beginning, middle and end” to the disappearance and death of Ms O’Hara.
Mr Guerin said he was asking the jury to take “at face value the unguarded and open expression of intent to kill” in the text messages and documents written by Mr Dwyer.