Elaine O’Hara: A troubled mind

ELAINE O’Hara’s life seemed to be that of a person desperately seeking affection and friendship, but which was blighted not just by her struggles with mental health but also the dark corners of the secret world in which she spent much of her time.

Time and again, family members testified as to Elaine’s vulnerability, sometimes her naivete, and yet she was also capable of shocking some of the people closest to and most protective of her.

So, on the one hand she had been a childcare worker and someone who at various times told Graham Dwyer that she wanted to change her life for the better. Yet at other times the trial heard that her sexual preference was “for a submissive relationship… for restraint, being tied up, being under control of another and punished”.