Graham Dwyer loses appeal over Elaine O'Hara murder conviction

Graham Dwyer was found guilty in March 2015 of murdering Elaine O'Hara

A man who stabbed a vulnerable childcare worker to death in the Republic of Ireland has had his appeal against his conviction dismissed.

Elaine O'Hara's remains were found in the Dublin mountains in September 2013.

Graham Dwyer, 51, was convicted by unanimous verdict at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin in March 2015.

He appealed on numerous grounds, including the admissibility of mobile phone data evidence.

Data held in the Cork-born architect's work mobile phone was an important part of the prosecution case in Dwyer's trial.

It was used to demonstrate how the device was in specific places at particular times and dates that were relevant to the murder.

In April last year Dwyer won a case in an EU court about the mobile data retention practices used in the case against him.

But on Friday an Irish Court of Appeal judge said: "There is no miscarriage of justice here.

"We have not been persuaded that the trial was unfair or that the verdict was unsafe and we dismiss the appeal."

The ruling comes almost exactly eight years after Dwyer was convicted.

During his trial Dwyer admitted having an affair with his victim, whom he met through a website.

The jury heard evidence that Dwyer and Ms O'Hara had a bondage and sado-masochist (BDSM) relationship in which he was the "master" and she was the "slave".

The court was told that he fantasised about stabbing a woman to death for sexual gratification.

He murdered Ms O'Hara on Kilakee mountain in Rathfarnham, the same day she left a psychiatric hospital.

She was last seen on 22 August 2012, the day of her murder, and had been missing for more than a year before her remains were discovered.

Dwyer was arrested on 17 October 2013.

The trial judge said that Dwyer, a married father, had preyed on Ms O'Hara to satisfy his "perverse and debauched desires".

In 2018 Dwyer won a legal action against the Irish state and An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force).

The High Court in Dublin found that provisions in legislation allowing Dwyer's mobile phone data to be accessed contravened EU law.

But on Friday the Court of Appeal found that the limited admission of call data could not give rise to a miscarriage of justice.