The jury in the trial of Graham Dwyer for the alleged murder of Elaine O'Hara has been told to acquit the accused if there is a reasonable chance she killed herself.
As they retired to consider their verdict, Judge Tony Hunt told jurors Ms O’Hara’s medical history, which includes depression and self-harm, “brings suicide into the picture”.
The five women and seven men will resume consideration of their verdict at 11am on Wednesday after judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt completed his two-day summation of the nine weeks of evidence in the case.
Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, is charged with murdering childcare worker Elaine O’Hara (36) on August 22nd, 2012.
He has pleaded not guilty.
During Mr Justice Hunt’s charge to the jury, which he concluded at 3.30pm, the judge addressed a range of issues including various exhibits of evidence, testimonies by witnesses, the possibility of suicidality, the nature of the Garda investigation, and Mr Dwyer’s own admissions to detectives during interviews.
On this issue of suicidality, Mr Justice Hunt said suicide “must be considered” and that the question was: “can suicide fit the facts?”
He said he would give his “sixpence worth” on the matter – pointing out that prosecuting counsel Sean Guerin and defence counsel Remy Farrell had clashed on the subject.
“I think they both might be right in identifying categories of people who might be candidates for suicide,” he said.
“We all have some experience of these matters to a greater or lesser extent.”
He said it had been Mr Guerin’s position that people who are intending to kill themselves tend to “clear the decks, make arrangements and tie up loose ends”.
Mr Guerin had pointed to different plans Ms O’Hara had before her disappearance, including volunteering at the Tall Ships festival.
“Mr Farrell was very critical of that and perhaps he’s right,” said Mr Hunt. It was “not an exhaustive” conclusion to draw.
Mr Justice Hunt also said: “No doubt it’s fair to say there are straws in the wind that blow both ways, so to speak.”
He said Ms O’Hara had by her own admission been “troubled by these thoughts” and that this “certainly brings suicide into the picture”.
“Both parties in this case had a very different take on the issue of suicide,” he said, before outlining how the prosecution believe suicide and suicidal ideas on the part of Ms O’Hara are relevant to the case because they “ticked one of the boxes” in terms of identifying a victim that was “less likely to attract scrutiny”.
He also said the “working assumption” of detectives at the time of Ms O’Hara’s disappearance was suicide.
“Subsequent to all that, Mr Farrell said there was an unseemly haste to push the theory back,” said Mr Justice Hunt.
Mr Hunt said the defence’s position was that the gardaí and later the prosecution had “resiled from the position” that Ms O’Hara may have died by suicide, and was “pushing forward a different position”.
“That’s his position: this is a case of suicide. That was the working assumption in 2012 and it shouldn’t be readily dismissed in 2013 because other things happened in 2013.
“It is Mr Farrell’s position that there is a reasonable possibility that is an explanation for the death of Ms O’Hara.”
He said that even if the jury were to reject suicide, the onus was still on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Dwyer murdered Ms O’Hara.
As he was discharging the jury to consider a verdict, Mr Justice Hunt summed up the task facing them.
“You have coming up to five years of information about these people,” he said. “About their desires, their tastes, their behaviour. You’re being asked to use all that to come to a conclusion as to what happened after 6pm that evening.”
He suggested they approach it “in a logical way”.
“What can you infer?” he asked. “Where did they go? What did they do when they got there? Did they get there? How does the stuff end up in the reservoir?”
Mr Hunt said the movement of the Nokia phones recovered from the reservoir “may help with” the jury reaching a conclusion on whether Ms O’Hara and Mr Dwyer met at Shanganagh on the date in question.
He noted the text messages were “zeroing in on the end game”.
“It all boils down to your view of three hours. It comes down to this: you cannot convict unless you are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the case Mr Guerin has put forward.”
