The murder trial of south Dublin architect Graham Dwyer has this morning heard evidence of a diary entry by Elaine O’Hara that said “the urge to cut is very great”.
Detective Garda Brid Wallace has been giving evidence which has also outlined some of Ms O’Hara’s activity on a BDSM alternative lifestyles website.
The trial has resumed at the Central Criminal Court following two days of legal argument in the absence of the jury.
Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, is charged with murdering Ms O’Hara (36), from Stepaside, Co Dublin, on August 22nd, 2012.
Det Garda Wallace agreed with Remy Farrell SC for the defence that a “dear diary type document” was found on a Hewlett Packard laptop belonging to Ms O’Hara.
An extensive passage from the diary was read to the jury, which included the phrases “I’m so sad and pissed off”, “I’m angry because I’m sad. I’m sad because I’m angry”, “I’m really lonely”, “I haven’t gone out and made friends”, “the urge to cut is very great”, “why can’t they all just leave me alone”, “all I want for the physical urges to go away”, “my mouth waters at the thought of a cigarette and the smell and I just wish it would go away”.
Earlier, Det Garda Wallace said she found evidence of an attempt by Ms O’Hara to send a document called mystory.doc to the email address kinkyswitch38@yahoo.gov.uk. Ms Wallace said the document “appeared to be a fictional story”.
Another “fragment” of dialogue between Ms O’Hara and this email address included the phrases: “Hi Sir, how are you. Had a look at you, the site you mentioned” and “I’ve thought of a few scenarios but they are not finished yet. Hope you don’t mind if I mail them to you another day”.
Also found on Ms O’Hara’s laptop were “headshots” associated with individuals Ms O’Hara had been in contact with on the BDSM website alt.com, Det Garda Wallace said.
The court heard the website had different levels of subscription and that Ms O’Hara’s subscription was that of a “silver member”.
As of April 6th, 2010, Ms O’Hara’s profile had been viewed 9,624 times, while she had been “on the hot list” 11 times.
Det Garda Wallace said she had been able to reconstruct certain web pages from alt.com that Ms O’Hara had visited.
She agreed with Mr Farrell that Ms O’Hara appeared to have been in contact with someone with the username “masturbate4menow”. This person was described in court as a 38-year-old male from the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area of Dublin.
Ms O’Hara was also in contact with an individual with the username “kinkycasper4”. The court heard she subsequently blocked messages from this individual. Another profile called “Daddy99995” was also blocked.
Det Garda Wallace agreed with Mr Farrell that another profile with the username “timetokillinDubli” likely referred to “Dublin”, that this individual had a “gold member” subscription, and that they had been accepted on Ms O’Hara’s “friend list” on September 17th, 2010.
There were also reference to profiles associated with witnesses who have previously given evidence to the trial.
The jury was also told there were groups on the website where “people with similar interests” could commune with one another. Ms O’Hara joined a group called “degradedc**thouse”, said Det Garda Wallace.
She agreed with Mr Farrell that the reconstructed pages were “just a snapshot” as they only showed the pages as they were at a particular time.
The court also heard evidence that Ms O’Hara had a number of profiles on the alt.com website. A photo of Ms O’Hara with her hands tied behind her back was used for a profile with the username “suborslave4you”.
Another profile, “submissive391”, could not be definitively linked to Ms O’Hara, said Det Garda Wallace, but there was a “high probability” as the number 391 was of significance to her. This profile was active as far back as 2006.
The first history associated with the “suborslaveforyou” profile was on October 29th, 2008.
The court previously heard evidence of a profile with the username “helpmelearn” that was associated with Ms O’Hara.
Det Garda Wallace also gave evidence to the court of fragments of emails recovered from the computer. She agreed with Mr Farrell that on January 3rd, 2008, there was correspondence with masterslutmaker@hotmail.com that included “enquiries as to how she was doing practicing masturbating and things of that sort”.
On July 2008, correspondence with talloth@hotmail.com included the remark: “master I wish to be your total property online, for training, for use and abuse”.
Correspondence between a user on the alt.com website with the username “submissive391391”, which couldn’t be definitively linked to Ms O’Hara, and an individual named “Ken”, a 35-year-old man living and working in Dublin, outlined “what he expects from a dominant/submissive relationship”.
Another user, “Mastervapor” told Ms O’Hara that she needed “to look more feminine”, such as by growing her hair, after she told them she had been turned down several times on the website after showing her photograph.
Correspondence with “Bigstallion2” referred to “physical contact at an unspecified location”: “Tuesday is good for me. Same place and time”.
Other “documents of interest” on the computer were images of scars, that Det Garda Wallace agreed were “perhaps taken by Ms O’Hara”. She said there was no indication the images had been sent anywhere.
Also retrieved from Ms O’Hara’s laptop were search results from a website “bestgore.com”.
The jury was told that on July 11th and 12th, 2012, entries included: “black hanging women”, “hanging”, “women hanging”, “woman stabbing”, “stabbing 48 times”, “prostitute stabbing”, “stabbing”, and “Swedish man [name redacted]committing suicide live on the internet”.
The prosecution has alleged Graham Dwyer lured Ms O’Hara up the Dublin Mountains and killed her for his own sexual gratification. The father of three has pleaded not guilty.
Ms O’Hara was last seen at about 5.45pm near Shanganagh Cemetery in Shankill, Co Dublin, on August 22nd, 2012.
Her remains were found in a forested area on Killakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, on September 13th, 2013, by a woman walking her dog.
The trial continues in front of Mr Justice Tony Hunt.
