Irish Supreme Court dismisses Graham Dwyer murder conviction appeal

The Irish Supreme Court has dismissed architect Graham Dwyer’s appeal against his conviction for the murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara in 2012.

Dwyer was convicted on March 27 2015 after a lengthy high-profile trial.

Lawyers for Dwyer had argued that his rights were breached through a system of “mass surveillance” involving the retention of mobile phone data which was used in the trial to pinpoint specific places at particular times and dates.

In April 2022, Dwyer won a case in Europe about the mobile data retention practices used in the case against him.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled that law in the union precludes the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data relating to electronic communication for the purpose of combating serious crime.

Dwyer subsequently launched an appeal in Ireland on numerous grounds, including the admissibility of the mobile phone data evidence.

This was dismissed by the Irish Court of Appeal, which found that the admission of the call data was very limited and could not be perceived as arising to a miscarriage of justice in the case – but the matter was further brought to the Supreme Court.

In the judgment delivered on Wednesday, the judges noted that the cornerstone of the prosecution’s case was the content and timing of text messages.

The judges noted that the attribution of the messages were “an essential building block” to the prosecution’s case but that the evidence linking the phones to Ms O’Hara and Dwyer had not been challenged or contradicted.

The court said that even if the traffic and location data from the phones had been deemed inadmissible, the appeal would have been dismissed due to the overwhelming and unanswerable evidence in the case which meant there was “no question of any lost chance of acquittal”.

It rejected the argument that the admission of the phone traffic and location evidence in the case would bring the administration of justice into “disrepute”, emphasising the probative value of the evidence, the gravity of the case and the limited and targeted nature of the access in the case.

A judgment from Mr Justice Collins said: “Here, in my view, the position is very clear. Even if the traffic and location data relating to the work was inadmissible – which, for the reasons set out above, it was not – the remaining evidence available to the prosecution was more than sufficient to establish attribution beyond any reasonable doubt. The evidence was in fact overwhelming and unanswerable.

“It follows, in my view, that there was no question of any lost chance of acquittal here… Accordingly, had I concluded that the traffic and location data was inadmissible, I would have upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal to apply the ‘proviso’ and would have dismissed Mr Dwyer’s appeal on that basis.”

As Dwyer’s appeal was dismissed, Ms O’Hara’s family members hugged one another in the court chamber.

In a statement they said: “It is now almost 12 years since we lost Elaine.

“What began as a missing persons case turned into a murder investigation and a long, arduous criminal trial, with many challenges to the jury’s’ verdict over the years.

“We are relieved that the Supreme Court has upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeal. We hope that Elaine can now, at last, rest in peace.

“We would like to thank An Garda Siochana, in particular the investigating team, the detectives and our family liaison officer who have been by our side throughout this.

“We would also like to thank our family and friends for the support they have given us over the years.

“We will not be making any further comment.”