From the moment Graham Dwyer was arrested, on October 17th, 2013, he remained in custody, spending 15 months in Cloverhill Prison before his trial began.
He was picked up at his home, at Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, Dublin, at 7am that Thursday.
After his fifth interview, over a period of 24 hours, gardaí briefly gave him back his wallet and phone before immediately rearresting him and formally charging him with murder. Asked if he had anything to say, he replied: “I do: Not guilty.”
He was remanded in custody and, at a hearing on November 20th, he was granted legal aid after evidence was produced that he was no longer earning a wage and that his home was in mortgage arrears.
Dwyer sought to be released pending his trial and appealed his continuous custody to the High Court and the Supreme Court.
Mr Justice Paul Butler refused bail at the High Court in late November 2013 and a three-judge sitting of the Supreme Court heard an appeal in December 2013.
Court’s decision
Giving the court's decision, on December 19th, the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Susan Denham, said the court was dismissing the grounds on which the appeal had been brought.
The judges had been shown video evidence and stills, including of Dwyer putting a plastic bag over Elaine O’Hara’s head, securing it with a cable and tightening it until O’Hara passed out.
Back at the High Court, in March 2014, Chief Supt Diarmaid O’Sullivan gave evidence during a further bail application.
He told Mr Justice Paul Carney he believed Dwyer might abscond because he was not going to be accepted back to work or to the family home and he would have nothing to lose.
He also feared that while on bail, Dwyer might commit a murder, a stabbing or rape. “I believe he has such a propensity to commit crimes of this nature that he would continue to commit them,” the chief superintendent said.
The court was also shown video stills of Dwyer stabbing O’Hara and the text messages between them.
In his decision to remand Dwyer in custody, Mr Justice Carney said he did not accept Dwyer was a flight risk. But he said he believed Dwyer had an insatiable desire to kill and mutilate, and this was supported evidentially by the material provided.
“I do not believe this can simply be dismissed as sexual fantasies,” he said.
