DWYER CASE SENT TO EU COURT OF JUSTICE
ACCUSED Sex killer’s data bid referred
STROLLING past Manchester Arena, suicide bomber Salman Abedi scopes out his target just four days before killing 22 people and injuring hundreds more.
The chilling footage was shown during the Old Bailey trial of brother Hashem Abedi, 22, who is accused of helping him plan the atrocity.
Salman was seen on May 18,
2017, looking at crowds for a
Take That concert and long
Beast Dwyer
O’hara queues at the box office – yards from where he detonated his device on May 22, at an Ariana Grande show.
One CCTV clip showed the 22-year-old the next day in a Sports Direct store, buying the backpack he carried his bomb in. Other footage showed him outside the city centre flat he rented to use for bomb-making – and spending €220 at B&Q on items including 4,000 screws
SEX killer Graham Dwyer will have his case objecting to the use of his phone data sent to the EU Court of Justice.
The 47-year-old is relying on the argument as part of his appeal against his conviction for the brutal murder of Elaine O’hara.
Chief Justice Frank Clarke took 10 minutes to deliver his judgment at Waterford Courthouse yesterday in a special sitting of the Supreme Court.
It could now take six months before there is a final decision.
Judge Clarke highlighted three main concerns that led him to the decision that the issues were matters for the European Court.
He said the universal limited retention of data is not necessarily incompatible with EU law, but the Irish regime for accessing it is not robust enough.
The Chief Justice also stated the final question relates to whether the court has the power to rule that the law should be considered invalid only from the day of its judgment.
Architect Dwyer, who was not in court yesterday, was found guilty in 2015 by unanimous verdict.
Ms O’hara, a 36-year-old childcare worker, disappeared in August 2012 after being last seen in
Chief
Justice Frank Clarke
Shanganagh Park in Dublin. The following year, items including handcuffs were discovered in the Vartry Reservoir, near Roundwood, Co Wicklow, by fishermen. Three days later, remains were discovered by a dog walker on Killakee Mountain and identified through dental records.
Dwyer had messaged Ms O’hara about his desire to stab a woman to death and also mentioned rape.
Yesterday, Judge Clarke said: “Under treaties and case law of the Court of Justice, a national court, such as the Supreme
Court, from which there is no further appeal, is obliged to make reference to the Court of Justice of any issue of European Union law, which is necessary to decide proceedings before it unless there is a clear answer to that issue of European or, as the case law of the Court of Justice puts it, the matter is acte clair.”
Dwyer scored a significant legal victory in 2018 when the High Court ruled the way investigators accessed and kept his mobile phone data breached EU law.
The killer’s appeal against his conviction is on hold pending the outcome of these proceedings.
This evidence played a key role in the prosecution of the Dublin man for the brutal murder.
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