One of the most horrific trials ever heard in this country

IT was one of the most horrific trials ever heard in Ireland – featuring a naive, lonely and troubled young woman killed by a manipulative married man for his own sadistic pleasure.

The skeletal remains of Elaine O’Hara, 36, were found on Killakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, Dublin, on September 13, 2013.

A jury found Graham Dwyer had stabbed her to death for his own sexual gratification, following a disturbing relationship which began online, which had exploited her wish to be loved.

The data contained in the couple’s phone records, revealing his location and that of his victim, and linking him to phones from which text messages between the pair were recovered, proved an important part of the prosecution’s successful case.

In his closing speech to the jury, Seán Guerin SC said that Dwyer was a ‘predator’ with an eye for the weak, and in the days before Ms O’Hara disappeared he found the opportunity he had been waiting for to stab her to death.

He explained: ‘The relationship, when you review it, is an entirely predatory one. And like any predator, Graham Dwyer had an eye for the weak.

‘He could see Elaine O’Hara was weak, he could see in her loneliness, her friendlessness and her isolation the opportunity to separate her from the flock, to get her on her own and undermine her self-worth. The only thing he ever saw in her was to be a victim of stabbing.’

Ms O’Hara was last seen near Shanganagh Cemetery in Shankill in August 2012.

Her remains were found by a dog walker in undergrowth in the Dublin mountains just over a year later.

A few days later, her keys were found at Vartry Reservoir by an angler, who took them to a garda station. A garda went to the scene of the discovery, and found two Nokia phones, described at the criminal trial as the ‘Master’ and ‘Slave’ phones.

In his closing speech, Mr Guerin said: ‘There was no other possible conclusion than that the Master phone found in the Vartry reservoir, and the 083 phone registered to “Goroon Caisholm”, were bought and used by Dwyer. Wherever he goes the phones go, they’re stuck to him like a shadow.’

Dwyer was sentenced to life in prison, a sentence trial Judge Tony Hunt said he ‘richly deserves’.