Witnesses met O’Hara on sub-dom website
Mr Dwyer is charged with Ms O’Hara’s murder in the Dublin Mountains at Killakee, Rathfarnham, on August 22, 2012, hours after she was discharged from a mental health hospital.
The Cork-born father of three of Kerrymount Close, Foxrock, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 36-year-old childcare worker on that date.
Robert Cullen Jones testified that he met Ms O’Hara through a website, alt.com, in March 2011.
“It’s a website for people, who like being submissive and dominant,” he said, explaining submissive meant “people who like to give control to someone else in a sexual way”.
He recalled Ms O’Hara’s user name was HelpMeLearn36-F and she described herself as “submissive”.
They met for coffee a few weeks later in Dundrum Shopping Centre before going back to Ms O’Hara’s apartment in Belarmine Plaza, Stepaside, where they had sex.
Mr Cullen Jones said Ms O’Hara mentioned an interest in being restrained and tied up.
He said that he thought he also saw a couple of battery-operated vibrators that day.
There was “the odd text” between them until he met her again in Dundrum Shopping Centre in May, 2012 but did not return to her apartment.
The first he knew of Ms O’Hara going missing was when gardaí approached him on August 30, 2012. They found his number on Ms O’Hara’s phone.
He recalled gardaí showing him a number of items. Seán Guerin SC, prosecuting, asked if he recognised anything. “I remember seeing one of the handcuffs and it could well be the same ones I saw when at the apartment,” he said.
Mr Guerin asked for Trial Exhibit 72, an item recovered from Vartry Reservoir as part of the investigation, to be shown on the court screens.
“I think it’s known as a butt plug,” said Mr Cullen Jones. “I can’t remember seeing it, to be honest. I merely remember the handcuffs and vibrator. I remember seeing something of that shape all right, but I couldn’t say for sure what it was.”
He said he had seen two such items.
Mr Cullen Jones agreed with Remy Farrell SC, defending, that alt.com catered for alternative sexual tastes, including relationships sometimes referred to as ‘sub-dom’ relationships.
“Sometimes the profiles would give someone’s status away,” he said, referring to the words “submissive” and “dominant”.
He also confirmed he had heard of “breath play”.
“I imagine it’s restricting someone’s breath,” he said .
He was asked about “wax play”. “I presume it’s using candles,” he replied. When asked about “knife play”, he said it was “like cutting”.
Mr Cullen Jones said his username on alt.com was DublinMaster and confirmed that it was clear from their usernames that Ms O’Hara was submissive and he was dominant.
Ms O’Hara’s profile from alt.com was then shown on screen and Mr Farrell read out her introduction.
“Hi. I hate these things,” it read. “I’ve been a sub on and off for a while. I’ve learnt a lot but I still have a lot to learn. My fetish is bondage. I love being in chains. I’m here to learn. I serve my master.”
Mr Farrell then read the section under the heading: “My ideal person”.
“Someone who can train me to be the best submissive/slave I can be… honest, loyal, frank and trustworthy and possibly caring, as well as strict,” he read.
“I’m also looking for someone who wants a 24/7 slave.”
A number of boxes had been ticked to show the activities in which HelpMeLearn36-F was interested. The activities included knife play, sensory deprivation, and verbal humiliation.
Mr Cullen Jones confirmed the photograph accompanying the profile appeared to be of a female, bent over and tied up.
Mr Farrell then asked him about the items he had seen in Ms O’Hara’s bedside locker.
“I think it was the black butt plug, which I had mistaken for a vibrator,” he said.
The jury also heard from Mark Guerin, who said his alt.com username was “Time2Kill in Dublin”.
Ms O’Hara contacted him through the site and they met twice. She first took him to her bedsit at Ardmeen Lodge in Blackrock, where she placed restraints on the bed.
He was shown a photo of an item recovered from Vartry Reservoir and said it was similar to what she had placed on the bed.
“I recognise the cuffs and chain,” said Mr Guerin.
“She talked about her previous partner and showed… cutting marks that weren’t consensual.”
He said he was there about an hour but that they did not have sexual relations.
He said she got in touch again when she moved to her new home in Stepaside. He went to her apartment and she laid out some restraints.
He was shown the photograph of the butt plug found in the reservoir.
“She had three of those,” he said. “She had brought them out initially.
“She was in a much lighter mood than she had been previously,” he said, confirming they had sexual relations.
However, they decided they had different preferences. “She was more into restraints, blood-letting, degradation and humiliation,” he said and he never saw her again.
The trial continues.
Murder victim described herself as ‘submissive’ and showed visitors sex toys
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