Irish Daily Star

Inquest hears crash victim was pregnant before death

MONSTER HITS MILESTONE IN JAIL...AS WE REVEAL SHOCK SNAP OF HIM LIVING IT UP AT 40TH AFTER KILLING ELAINE

- ■■Michael O’TOOLE Crime Correspond­ent

A NEWLYWED woman killed in a road collision had a scan confirming a healthy pregnancy the day before her death, an inquest heard yesterday.

Krista Rowan (31) of Ontario, Canada but living in Co Sligo, died at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on August 29, 2020.

She had been travelling northbound on the M1 on August 19 to a work meeting in Newry when the crash occurred.

A lorry driver described how her car moved across the M1 in front of him from the fast lane to the hard shoulder before mounting a barrier, overturnin­g and colliding with a signpost.

Waiting

Lorry driver Barry Young pulled over and returned to the scene and held the woman’s head while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

“The last thing I was going do was leave her by herself, it was important to me that someone was there,” Mr Young told Dublin Coroner’s Court.

She and her Irish husband Eoin Rowan had married just weeks before the fatal accident.

The cause of death was cerebral trauma and the coroner recorded a narrative verdict, noting that baby Ree Rowan did not survive the impact of the fatal collision.

DEPRAVED convicted killer Graham Dwyer celebrates a milestone birthday today – as he turns 50 behind bars.

But the monster, serving life for one the most gruesome murders in modern Irish history, will have a normal day in the Midlands Prison – just like the 3,253 he has already served in custody since he was arrested over the 2012 murder of tragic Elaine O’Hara (36).

Sources say he will have no visitors in the prison – but can get himself a treat in the tuck shop if he wishes.

It’s a far cry from his 40th birthday back in September 2012 – which he celebrated less than a month after murdering Ms O’Hara in the Dublin Mountains on August 22 that year.

This exclusive photo shows Dwyer celebratin­g that birthday in his native Cork.

The pervert looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world as he knocks back white wine at the birthday bash surrounded by balloons and childhood pictures.

Wearing a white t-shirt and a novelty birthday badge, Dwyer looks like any other family man celebratin­g a milestone.

But in reality his family and friends were sitting alongside a monster who had just committed one of Ireland’s most calculated killings.

Custody

The snap was taken on September 15, 2012 — shortly after he murdered the childcare worker.

Dwyer, who maintains his innocence and is set to have his murder appeal heard later this year, has not had a single day of freedom since he was arrested at his then home in Foxrock, south Dublin on October 17, 2013.

It’s now the ninth birthday he has had in custody – but if he wins his December appeal against his March 27, 2015 conviction for Ms O’Hara’s murder, it could be his last. If the Court of Appeal accepts his challenge against his conviction, the threejudge panel could order his immediate release.

The State is fighting the appeal and wants him to serve the rest of his life sentence – but the judges will have the final say.

Dwyer, an architect and father of three who is originally from Bandon in Co Cork, had the chances of his appeal being successful bolstered when the European Court of Justice ruled in April that phone evidence crucial to the Garda case against him was contrary to EU law.

Dwyer was convicted largely because of records from two phones that the State claimed he used to groom Elaine for murder.

The messages and data taken from the phones was a key plank in the case against Dwyer and showed that he was obsessed with rape and murder and lured Elaine to her death in the south Dublin mountains.

 ?? ?? TWISTED: Graham Dwyer celebrates his 40th in Cork just a month after he murdered Elaine O’Hara
CLAIMS: Dwyer at court after he was charged with Elaine’s murder
SICKO: Dwyer groomed Elaine (right) to be his murder victim
TWISTED: Graham Dwyer celebrates his 40th in Cork just a month after he murdered Elaine O’Hara CLAIMS: Dwyer at court after he was charged with Elaine’s murder SICKO: Dwyer groomed Elaine (right) to be his murder victim
 ?? ?? ACCIDENT: Krista (31)
ACCIDENT: Krista (31)

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