Elaine O’Hara’s family tell court ‘for us there is no parole’

Graham Dwyer has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Elaine O'Hara as the trial judge said "a dangerous man is out of the way".

Mr Justice Tony Hunt also said the sentence was richly deserved.

Last month, Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close, Foxrock, Dublin, was found guilty of murdering childcare worker Ms O’Hara (36) on August 22nd, 2012.

Her remains were found on Killakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, on September 13th, 2013. Dwyer had stabbed her to death for his own sexual gratification, the jury found.

Eleven out of 12 jurors were in the Central Criminal Court for the sentence hearing yesterday. Det Garda Sgt Peter Woods, who had led the investigation into the killing, took the stand.

Seán Guerin SC, prosecuting, led him through a brief outline of the facts of the case, including how Dwyer met Ms O’Hara on website Alt.com and how he brought her to Killakee Mountain and murdered her.

Mr Guerin then read into the record a victim impact statement written by Frank O’Hara, the victim’s father, on behalf of the family.

He said they knew they were not the only victims of the crime. “We recognise that other families are suffering too and we feel for every other person affected.” He said the family had lost a daughter, a sister and a friend in the most brutal, traumatic and horrifying manner.

“We also have many unanswered questions which we will have to carry with us for the rest of our lives.”

He said his daughter was an intelligent woman who never fully realised her potential due to her psychological difficulties. She was prescribed a lot of medication and this had an impact on her ability to be a regular teenager, particularly socially. “She was emotionally immature and very trusting of anyone who showed her kindness.”

Medication reduced

Ms O’Hara’s medication was reduced in later years, the statement said, hospital stays became less common and she functioned more effectively. However, she had missed out on the important, formative years.

Mr O’Hara said his daughter’s ambition was to be a teacher and she was studying Montessori.

“In 2014, we collected a BA in Montessori education which was awarded to her in St Nicholas Montessori School,” he said.

“She would have been so happy and proud to stand up in her gown and hat to accept that degree herself after overcoming many obstacles to finally get the qualification she longed for, but unfortunately this was not to be.”

When Elaine went missing in August 2012, the family was devastated. Mr O’Hara described how they spent many hours walking the shore from Blackrock to Bray searching for any sign of her.

“A year after her disappearance we laid flowers in the sea at Shanganagh in her memory and in an effort to find some closure for us as a family,” he said.

He described the trial as “an incredibly difficult experience”.

“It was distressing to see Elaine’s private life laid bare before the nation, despite the fact that she was the victim,” it said.

He also said some of the reporting in the print media was “insulting to Elaine and deeply upsetting for the family” and at times, “Elaine’s life was relegated to a lurid headline in a newspaper”.

It was heartbreaking for them “to listen to the texts Elaine received from a depraved and diseased mind.

“The manipulation of her vulnerability was apparent and when she tried to resist, she was reined back in. We can hear her voice in those texts, just wanting to be loved.”

Mr O’Hara also said hearing the contents of the videos would haunt the family forever. They were also upset that the credibility of their evidence was questioned. Throughout the 2½ years, all they wanted was “the truth and justice for Elaine”.

“We will probably never know what happened in Killakee on Wednesday the 22nd of August 2012, but there are questions that trouble us,” he said.

These included when Ms O’Hara realised it wasn’t a game and whether she tried to run away, if she suffered much and whether she was left on the mountain to die alone.

“This is our life sentence. For us there is no parole,” Mr O’Hara said.

Well-loved

Mr Justice Hunt said Ms O’Hara was well-loved and well- cared for and her family should not reproach themselves. They showed great composure and dignity in court, he said, and at no point “tried to gild the lily” during their evidence.

He also said Ms O’Hara was not “all about her illnesses”, and she was extremely hardworking and coped with her illnesses “in a remarkably strong way”.

She was “much broader than she had been portrayed” and only wanted someone to look after her, “no different from anyone else”. She was cynically misused and abused by Dwyer. He also used and abused her after her death “in an attempt to slither out from under her responsibilities”.

“Mr Dwyer had absolutely no regard for this woman except for what he could get from her; the satisfaction of his perverse and debauched desires,” Mr Justice Hunt said.

He told the family the trial was not designed to provide answers to all the questions people who have lost a loved one would wish answered, but he hoped they had some insight into what happened and some light had been shone into “some dark corners of this very dark story”.

Inclining his head toward the defendant, Mr Justice Hunt said shame and embarrassment was “in very short supply in that corner of the court . . . He was lying to cover up the obvious truth that emerged from 20 feet under water.” He also said the defence had been forced to concede his client was a “repulsive misogynist”.

He gave credit to gardaí, particularly Garda James O’Donoghue, who persisted in a search of the Vartry reservoir and recovered important evidence.

Cynically abused

Mr Justice Hunt said Gemma Dwyer had also been cynically abused and “cruelly deceived” by her husband’s actions.

He said Dwyer had bought one of the phones he used in his relationship with Ms O’Hara at a time when his wife was about to give birth to their second child. This said a lot about him, the judge said.

A statement issued by Ms Dwyer after her husband’s conviction, commiserating with the O’Hara family, took “a broad back and a generous spirit”, he said, and was a Christian and charitable act.

“We may be thankful that a dangerous man is out of the way . . . if you think he is not, you only have to look at his Buck Special knife,” the judge said. He queried why it was “secreted away” in the basement of the office where Mr Dwyer worked, “if not for use in the future”.

He said Dwyer was “in his place of denial, of arrogance and delusion” and would stay there for the remainder of his life sentence. How long that was was in the hands of others.

He pointed out there was no remorse shown of any kind and said instead there had been a “bizarre spectacle of a convicted murderer making a press statement” in which he did not refer to the deceased.

Mr Justice Hunt said the killing was a chilling and premeditated murder – almost an execution – after a protracted campaign of the most vile manipulation of a woman too weak to resist.