Graham Dwyer told a US woman over the internet he had cut Elaine O'Hara during sex and that he had a fantasy about killing her, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, Dublin, is charged with murdering childcare worker Elaine 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.
Darci Day gave evidence to the court via live television link from Maine in the US and said Mr Dwyer told her he cut Ms O’Hara in the stomach.
Asked by Seán Guerin SC, for the prosecution, what the circumstances were, Ms Day said “it was mutual and sexual”.
She said Mr Dwyer also told her Ms O’Hara asked him to kill her in the past.
“His fantasy was basically wanting to stab a woman to death during sex,” Ms Day said.
Asked if he expressed any fantasies involving Ms O’Hara, she said he did.
“He basically wanted to go after her and if she wanted to, he’d want to kill her and then come after me,” she said.
Ms Day, who was at times highy emotional, told the court she had difficulties in her childhood. Her parents divorced when she was young, her father had alcohol problems and a couple of different wives, and her mother had a boyfriend with “a lot of issues”.
She said her grandmother died of bone cancer when she was aged about 12, and she struggled a lot with depression after that. She was also sexually abused.
Mr Guerin asked what the consequences of her depression were.
“I felt like I was worthless to my family and didn’t want to live anymore,” she said. She told the jury she struggled with suicide and self harm and started going on line and talking to different people about fantasies.
She said she met Mr Dwyer on a website in 2010 or 2011, though she couldn’t be sure which one. She used the name Cassie and wrote about her fantasy about dying and about rape and murder. They talked a lot through Gmail and she “loaded a lot of stuff” on Mr Dwyer.
“He was there and listened to me and offered a solution,” she said.
Ms Day said they also sent text messages on a few occasions and Mr Dwyer talked about getting a separate, disposable phone for communication.
They also sent each other videos involving throat cutting and strangulation. There were also diagrams of “where all the arteries and stuff are, so you wouldn’t miss”. She said she knew Mr Dwyer was married and that he liked planes.
She also said Mr Dwyer was looking at places in Maine that could be used as disposal sites when he killed her.
Mr Guerin asked if there was a method discussed for killing her.
Ms Day said the plan was he would meet her somewhere and she’d leave her car and get into his car with him and he’d drive them to a location.
“There ... he wanted to have sex and then cut my throat until I lost consciousness during intercourse,” she said.
She did not recall him discussing how he would avoid getting caught.
Under cross examination from Remy Farrell SC, Ms Day acknowledged she had medical and psychological difficulties including ADD, a learning disability and PTSD, but said she was not taking medication. She told him things had changed “amazingly” for her since she was in communication with Mr Dwyer.
“I ended up giving my life to Christ,” she said.
She agreed she did attend counselling but said she did not discuss Mr Dwyer there. She said her doctor looked at her learning disability and “memory issues”.
“What memory issues?” Mr Farrell asked.
“I don’t remember all the molestation that happened to me,” Ms Day said.
She also said she gave gardaí written permission to search through her Gmail records.
Mr Farrell suggested there was a difference between what Ms Day had originally told Detective Ryan Broderick, an American officer dealing with the case, and what she told the court. He asked if Det Broderick had suggested she Google the case. She agreed.
Mr Farrell also asked if Det Broderick had told her Mr Dwyer had kept some Facebook material of hers and was going over it “again and again”. Ms Day said he did. She also agreed the detective said “knowing these people they keep these things until they die”.
Earlier, the court heard two Nokia phones found in the Vartry Reservoir had only each other listed on their contacts with the names MSTR and SLV.
Analyst Sarah Skedd agreed with Mr Guerin that MSTR was "master" with only the consonants and SLV was "slave".
Ms Skedd examined data for five phones; an 083 phone, alleged to be owned by Mr Dwyer; an 087 phone, used by Mr Dwyer for work; an 086 iphone, owned by Ms O’Hara; and two Nokia 086 phones recovered from the reservoir and allegedly used by Ms O’Hara and Mr Dwyer.
Ms Skedd agreed she compared the phone cell mast sites used by the 083 number and the 086 “master” phone with cell sites used by Mr Dwyer’s 087 work phone, to see if the movements were consistent with each other.
She also wanted to ascertain if any messages were received by one phone when the other phone was in a different location.
A diagram was produced for the court showing the contact between the various phones. Ms Skedd said there were 847 messages between Mr Dwyer’s work phone and Ms O’Hara’s iPhone in 2008 and 2009.
There were 2,637 messages between Ms O’Hara’s iPhone and the 083 number allegedly used by Mr Dwyer between March 25th, 2011 and July 12th, 2012.
Ms Skedd said of the 2,637 texts, she could read the content of the messages for 2,344 of them.
She also agreed there was a small amount of contact between Ms O’Hara’s iPhone and the nokia “slave” phone.
Mr Guerin suggested this was consistent with a person who has two phones and can’t find the second one and rings it.
Ms Skedd said it was how she found her own phone.
The court heard there was also 1,369 texts and 11 calls between the Nokia master and slave phones. Ms Skedd said there were 168 unique messages sent between those two phones between August 14th and August 22nd 2012.
There was one call between Ms O’Hara’s iPhone and the Nokia “master” phone.
“So these two phones from the reservoir almost entirely were used to make contact with each other?” Mr Guerin asked.
“In terms of outgoing contact, I’d say exclusively used to make contact with each other and for topping up,” Ms Skedd responded.
Ms Skedd also said there were 64 contacts between the Nokia master and slave phones on the day Ms O’Hara disappeared. There were also 98 contacts between them on August 21st and 26 on the 20th.
Mr Guerin outlined the analysis prepared by Ms Skedd of the contact between the two phones. He highlighted dates on which there was frequent contact, including 94 messages on July 11th, 2012 and 51 messages on the July 9th.
He also outlined contacts analysed between Ms O’Hara’s iPhone and the 083 number allegedly used by Mr Dwyer. These included 70 contacts on November 10th, 2011 and more than 20 each day on November 22nd, 23rd and 24th. He reminded the jury that the Nokia master and slave phones were purchased on November 30th 2011 and said after that, the contact between the iPhone and the 083 phone “largely ceased” for a time.
Ms Skedd also analysed and compared on the mobile phone cells used by each of the phones.
She agreed the 083 phone most frequently used a cell site at ESB headquarters, Fitzwilliam Street, on a total of 325 occasions. On the same days it was active, Mr Dwyer’s work phone also most frequently used the ESB cell site, 647 times.
The second most frequently used cell site was at Rochestown Lodge Hotel. It was used 136 times by the 083 phone, and on the days it was active, Mr Dwyer’s 087 work phone used the site 450 times.
The third most popular cell site was 3 Rock, for the 083 number and Poland, for the 087 phone. Other sites used by the 083 number included Carrickmines and Stepaside Garda station; and for the 087 number Cabinteely, Foxrock, Deansgrange and Carrickmines.
Ms Skedd also produced maps using the co-ordinates for the cells sites and their orientation.
“They tell us where the cells are and what direction they are pointing?” Mr Guerin suggested.
Ms Skedd agreed. The jury was shown the map identifying the location of the ESB cell sites.
The trial continues.
