High Court adjourns Dwyer data-retention case

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

The High Court adjourned Graham Dwyer’s data-retention case on 20 December 2018, after the State said it wanted to make submissions on proposed final orders and declarations. Mr Justice Tony O’Connor adjourned the matter to a date in January.

The ruling forms part of Dwyer’s bid to overturn his conviction for the 2012 murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara. Dwyer was convicted in 2015 and jailed for murder. He denies killing her.

Earlier in December, Mr Justice O’Connor found that Dwyer was entitled to limited declarations concerning the data-retention laws. He found that the 2011 Act provided for indiscriminate retention and that sections concerning access to telephone data contravened EU law and the European Court of Human Rights. The State had yet to announce whether it would appeal and was considering seeking a stay on the final orders if it did.

For the State, Brian Murray SC said requests for retained telephone data were still being made where a person’s life was at risk or in matters of State security. He said requests concerning the investigation, prevention and detection of crime were not being granted, although one request in a criminal investigation had been made to a district court judge under different legislation.

Dwyer argued that data gathered from his work phone under the 2011 Act should not have been used at his 2015 Central Criminal Court trial and that its use breached his rights. The data placed the phone at particular locations and was used to link him to another phone which the prosecution told the jury he had acquired and used to contact Ms O’Hara. The State opposed his application.