Dwyer trial: Elaine O’Hara told sister she miscarried

Elaine O'Hara told her sister she had a miscarriage, the jury in the murder trial of architect Graham Dwyer has heard.

Anne Charles said that in November 2011 her sister texted her to say she had had a miscarriage in May.

She said she asked Ms O’Hara who the father was and whether she had seen a doctor, but “she fudged the questions”, although she did say it was from “a one-night stand”.

Childcare worker Ms O’Hara (36), Stepaside, in Dublin, was last seen at 5.45pm on August 22nd, 2012, near Shanganagh cemetery in south Dublin.

Her remains were found in the Dublin Mountains on September 13th, 2013.

Graham Dwyer (42), Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, Dublin, was arrested in October 2013 and is charged with murdering Ms O’Hara. He has pleaded not guilty.

Trusting

Ms Charles told the court her sister, who was two years older than her, “never grew up like the rest of us did” because of her psychiatric problems.

“She was quite naive in a way and very trusting of people,” she said.

Ms Charles was shown photographs of dirty clothing, a turquoise blue hoodie, dark tracksuit bottoms and a white vest.

“Does this look like the sort clothing Elaine used to wear?” Seán Guerin SC, for the prosecution, asked. “Yes, she would have,” Ms Charles responded.

She also gave evidence of her attempts to contact her sister on the day she disappeared.

“I’d been talking to my dad and he said she was out of hospital. I’d wanted to tell her I was glad,” she said.

She called her twice, but got no response.

Two days later, she went with her father to gardaí to report Ms O’Hara missing.

Ms Charles gave details of the search for her sister and said she gave gardaí her sister’s iPhone and the sat nav from her car.

Also giving evidence, her brother John O’Hara said that during a search of his sister’s apartment in Belarmine on the night of August 24th, 2012, he found a web address in one of his sister’s notebooks. He said it was a fetish website.

He told a garda about it and the following day he logged on and created a user name so that he could search for his sister. He believed he found her profile.

He then closed his profile name and gave the information to gardaí.

Shocked

Under cross-examination from Remy Farrell SC, he agreed he was shocked to find his sister was interested in “S&M”.

“Elaine treated me very much like a baby brother,” he said.

He also said he found a notebook PC in his sister’s apartment, which was “different from her usual laptop”, but he could not get into it because it was password protected.

He said he also found print outs from the Hunting Ireland website of fixed-blade hunting knives, both called Buck Special 119, with stainless steel blades, one described as “six-inch” and the other as “15.2cm”.