Graham Dwyer trial: court shown videos of women being stabbed

Video clips found on an external hard drive at Graham Dwyer's home allegedly showing him having sex and using a knife to stab the women involved have been shown at the Central Criminal Court this morning.

Members of the public were excluded from the courtroom for a third time in the case and Mr Justice Tony Hunt gave a warning to jurors about what they would have to view.

Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, is charged with murdering childcare worker Ms O’Hara (36) on August 22nd, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.

Ms O’ Hara’s remains were found in forestry on Kilakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, on September 13th, 2013.

Mr Justice Hunt said there were video clips that it was not going to be easy to see. He reminded them they were given a “squeamishness warning” by the judge who empanelled them, and said he hopefully wouldn’t have to allude to that warning “too much more”.

He told the seven men and five women they had to be “the judges of fact” and that involved “stripping away the emotions” that would “understandably arise”.

“Put aside the feelings that may come to the forefront of your mind ... you are required to be objective,” he said.

Mr Justice Hunt said they should look at the evidence as “information pertaining to a decision you have to make”, and put aside their feelings.

The judge also told them the prosecution would hopefully be finished its case by Friday of this week.

External storage device

Det Garda Bríd Wallace gave evidence that she discovered the video clips on an external storage device that looked as though it was empty, but contained the material in unallocated space, where deleted files are held.

The first clip showed Mr Dwyer stabbing himself in the leg with a knife. In the second, Mr Dwyer spoke directly to camera and explained he had just woken up after having knocked himself out with chloroform.

“I am feeling very disorientated,” he says.

He says he has very little recollection of what happened and that there is a pounding noise in his head.

In a third clip, there is music playing in the background and a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, is having sex with a woman from behind and appears to have a knife and is stabbing her.

In a fourth clip, a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, is shown cutting a woman who is whimpering. The man then rubs the blade of the knife against her skin. “Now that wasn’t bad,” he says.

In a fifth clip, a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, sits astride a woman, has sex with her and stabs her. Her muffled cries can be heard and then screaming.

Women pixelated

Sean Guerin SC, explained to the jury that some of the videos had been pixelated so as not to reveal the identity of other women.

A sixth clip, entitled “Attempted breast stab”, showed a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, sitting behind a woman who was on the edge of a bed in handcuffs. He attempts to stab her in the breast. She says “f***ing hell, f*** me, stop please”.

In a seventh clip, entitled “Bloodletting”, a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, is seen sitting behind a woman in handcuffs. He cuts her breast and brings it close to the camera to show the blood falling from it.

In the eighth clip, a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, is seen stabbing a woman during sex nine times.

In the ninth clip, the face of the woman is pixelated, and a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, repeatedly stabs her. Her muffled cries can be heard and he says “shhh”.

A tenth clip, entitled “After stabbing”, shows a shot of a woman’s body with blood coming from her side and blood on the bed sheets.

An eleventh clip, called “Fake stabbing”, shows a man, allegedly Mr Dwyer, repeatedly stabbing a woman with a retractable knife, and muffled sounds of discomfort can be heard from the woman.

A document found on the hard drive entitled “Jenny’s first rape” was also found on Ms O’Hara’s laptop, the trial was told.

Mr Guerin said another document detailed the story of someone pretending to be a builder working for a landlord. He said the author gives an account of following the routine of a woman resident in a house and watching her movements, and being excited while awaiting her return.

Mr Guerin said when the woman returns, the author checks he has his “rope, chloroform, plastic bag and flick knife”.

“My fake clipboard and pen – I nearly forgot those, it says,” Mr Guerin told the jury.

The author then describes locking his TT car and walking across the road. He then knocks on the door of the house and the woman answers. The author says "My name is Graham Dwyer. I'm here to inspect the roof". It then says "Shit, I just realised I used my real name, that changes things slightly".

Mr Guerin said the document then describes the author following the resident into the the house to check the roof for leaks.

Unconscious woman

In another document found, an unconscious woman is dragged into a cave on a beach where she is raped, Mr Guerin said.

The man holds a flick knife to her face, the woman escapes and the man chases her with a hunting knife. He stabs her in the stomach repeatedly until she dies, Mr Guerin said.

Det Garda Wallace agreed she also examined a laptop that Mr Dwyer shared with colleagues.

She agreed that on July 25th, 2005, it showed Mr Dwyer logged on to BDSM website Alt.com using the profile Architect72.

The jury was also told of a HP laptop found at Mr Dwyer’s home by gardaí. Det Garda Wallace agreed she had examined a copy of a hard drive from it. Data showed user “Graham Dwyer” had downloaded images including mutilation, bondage, asphyxiation and violence against women.

Det Garda Wallace agreed the images were last accessed on October 16th, 2013.

“That was the night before the search of Mr Dwyer’s home?” Mr Guerin asked.

Det Garda Wallace agreed.

Under cross examination from Ronan Kennedy BL, for Mr Dwyer, Det Garda Wallace agreed she could not determine the dates for some of the videos shown to the jury as she was unable to retrieve the data from the computer.

‘Retractable knife’

Mr Kennedy said in the first clip, “Mr Dwyer is pretending to stab himself with what appears to be a retractable knife”.

He asked whether there was data to show when this file was dated. Det Garda Wallace said there was not.

No date could be obtained for the clip of Mr Dwyer describing the effect of chloroform, Mr Kennedy said. Det Garda Wallace agreed.

Mr Kennedy said the third clip, “in which both Mr Dwyer and Ms O’Hara are visible”, showed a background with Chinese curtains, which were also seen in a photograph of Ms O’Hara in her home at Ardmeen Lodge, the accommodation she lived in prior to moving to Belarmine Plaza.

Det Garda Wallace agreed.

Mr Kennedy said Mr Dwyer and Ms O’Hara were also visible in the 4th clip and it had a last written date of October 19th, 2008. He asked if clip three and four were from the same sequence.

“They could be, I can’t definitively say that,” Det Garda Wallace said.

In the fifth video clip, Mr Dwyer and Ms O’Hara could again be seen, Mr Kennedy said, and this was last written on October 28th, 2008 at 22.07 hours.

The sixth and seventh clips both showed Mr Dwyer with a woman, and it appeared it was the same woman in both, Mr Kennedy said. Det Garda Wallace agreed.

She also agreed she could not tell the date when the clips were written to the computer, but that other documents found at the same location were dated May and June, 2005.

Mr Kennedy said the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh clips were of Mr Dwyer and another woman. They were dated February 15th, May 3rd and again May 3rd, 2007, and January 29th, 2009, respectively.

Det Garda Wallace also agreed that “several hundred” images apparently accessed on October 16th, 2013 on Mr Dwyer’s HP laptop could have been consistent with anti-virus software.

The trial continues.