Dwyer trial hears of data requests

The jury in the Graham Dwyer trial has heard about Garda requests for Elaine O’Hara’s mobile phone data up to the day he is alleged to have murdered her, and for his data for several months before and after that date.

The court also heard from a woman whose advert looking for free or cheap architecture services was answered by Mr Dwyer.

The Central Criminal Court jury heard from the witnesses on the 27th day of the architect’s murder trial.

Mr Dwyer, aged 42, is charged with murdering Dubliner Elaine O’Hara 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.

The jury spent the morning listening to detailed technical evidence about mobile phone records and cell sites through which mobile phone communication is routed.

Conor O’Callaghan of Vilicom Engineering Ltd said he had provided information to the gardaí about a phone number registered to Ms O’Hara in December 2000, when she had been living in Blackrock.

He provided call data records on the O2 number from October 2011 up until she went missing on August 22 the following year.

Jamie Clifford of 3 Ireland testified that he provided data for the phone number that the court has already heard Mr Dwyer used for work. This phone was registered to his employer, A&D Wejchert.

These details covered the period from October 2011 to November 2012, shortly after the phone number’s contract with 3 ended.

He also provided data for a prepay number sold with a phone at the 3 shop on Grafton Street on March 25, 2011. The customer registered it in the name of “Goroon Caisholm”, with an address at Oak Lawn, Clerihan, Tipperary, and a date of birth of April 4, 1992. Mr Clifford produced call records for this number from October 2011 until October 2013.

He explained that all of the data had been requested in 2013 and that phone companies were required to retain the data for two years and then destroy it.

The jury later heard from Sinéad Norman, who owned a 10-acre property in Inverin about 25km west of Galway City.

She said that, in 2009, she advertised on two websites for the free or cheap assistance of an architect.

Graham Dwyer replied to her ad and she met him at her house in Corrandulla, Co Galway.

She said she met him a total of four times. A planning application was made and refused, but she was satisfied with his work and recommended him to a friend, Claire Fox.

Ms Norman identified photographs of her land in the witness box. Labelled “Fox House”, they were dated July 4, 2012.

“I wasn’t aware that they were taken,” she said, confirming that Mr Dwyer had called her on that date.

The court had already heard that toll booth records showed that one of Mr Dwyer’s toll tags passed tolls at Kinnegad and Ballinasloe that day.

The jury also heard from one of Mr Dwyer’s oldest friends, Colm Costello, who grew up with the accused in Bandon and went to nursery, primary and secondary school with him.

“I believe I’ve known him 39 years,” he said.

Mr Costello confirmed that they and other friends met at Mr Dwyer’s home on Saturday, July 2, 2012. They went to the local pub and then back to the house.

“We were planning the 20th anniversary of leaving school,” he explained, when cross-examined by the defence. “It was an opportunity to meet up.”

Other accounts of Mr Dwyer’s movements were given by a Ballyshannon hotel owner, who checked him into her hotel for one night on July 5 that year; and from the club secretary of Carron Model Flying Club, who saw him at an event at the Tipperary club three days later.

The trial has heard that Ms O’Hara was last seen in Shanganagh, South Dublin, on the evening of August 22, 2012.

A cause of death could not be determined when her skeletal remains were discovered at Killakee on September 13 the following year.

It is the State’s case that Mr Dwyer stabbed her for his own sexual gratification.