Graham Dwyer challenges phone data evidence in murder conviction appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Graham Dwyer’s lawyers challenged the use of mobile phone data at his murder trial during an appeal before the Court of Appeal. The proceedings were reported on 1 December 2022.

Dwyer was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in 2015 of murdering Elaine O’Hara on 22 August 2012. The report said her body was found in a forest in 2013.

Remy Farrell SC, for Dwyer, argued that retaining the data breached his client’s rights under the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and that it should not have been admitted at trial. He objected specifically to data retained for a phone described as Dwyer’s work phone, which he said prosecutors used to attribute other phones to his client.

Farrell said the data retention law involved general and indiscriminate surveillance. He said gardaí had obtained records in 2014 covering 7 October 2011 to 30 November 2012, allowing them to build a detailed picture of Dwyer’s movements and contacts.

Michael Bowman SC, also for Dwyer, argued that the trial judge, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, had looked disapprovingly at the defendant and that jurors could pick up on non-verbal cues. Bowman also said nine videos of Dwyer with other women could have overwhelmed the jury’s impartiality and that descriptions would have achieved the prosecution’s aims.

Bowman argued that the judge should have discharged the jury because there was no forensic evidence of how O’Hara died; he said suicide remained a live issue. The report said Sean Guerin SC would respond for the prosecution the following day before Mr Justice George Birmingham, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy and Mr Justice John Edwards. It reported no appeal decision.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.