Spade found near Elaine O'Hara remains 'from our garden', says Graham Dwyer's wife

The architect was giving evidence today on the 25th day of her husband’s trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The 42-year-old architect is charged with murdering Ms O’Hara at Killakee, Rathfarnham on August 22, 2012, hours after she was discharged from a mental health hospital.

The Cork-born father-of-three of Kerrymount Close, Foxrock, Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 36-year-old childcare worker on that date.

Gemma Dwyer testified that she had first met the accused in the 1990s, when they were architecture students in Bolton Street (DIT).

They later married and lived in a Rathmines cottage, which they renovated, until they moved to their Foxrock home in 2007.

She was asked to write down the names and dates of birth of their two children on a piece of paper, which was then shown to the court and jury.

Asked about her husband’s interest in model aeroplanes, she described it as "huge". She said he would work on his planes every evening and fly them every weekend.

She said he would also fly them at a club on Wednesday afternoons, weather depending. He would go straight from work and be home around 8.30pm.

However, she said she had no particular recollection of Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

She was asked about the computers in their home. She said that she and her husband had a laptop each, and that Mr Dwyer would sometimes bring home a work computer to use for work.

“Fantastic. He could do anything with computers,” she replied, when asked about his computer skills.

She confirmed that they had also used the same computer at one stage.

“We both had our own sections on it. He set it up,” she said, explaining that they would log on under separate profiles and that she never looked at her husband’s section.

She confirmed that the accused also had a big interest in cars and that he would frequently buy and sell them. She said he had a Porsche 911 that he was particularly fond of and he kept this the longest.

“He called it his baby,” she said.

A 087 mobile phone number was put to her.

“That was his work phone and the only phone I was aware of,” she said.

She was asked about Friday, September 13, 2013, and she confirmed she was aware that this was the day Ms O’Hara’s remains were found.

“My birthday is the 13th of September and also Graham’s birthday,” she said.

She was asked if she remembered any particular reaction.

“No,” she replied. “We went out to dinner, out to a Mexican restaurant on South Great George’s Street, and celebrated the birthday together.”

She was asked if Mr Dwyer had any marks on his body.

“He has a tattoo on his left shoulder. It’s a symbol from the Book of Kells,” she said. “It was on the old Irish penny.”

She said he’d had it before she met him.

Mrs Dwyer said that her husband previously had an interest in mountain biking and that this would take him to the Hell Fire Club in the Dublin Mountains.

She said she knew nothing about him ordering a hunting knife off the internet on August 17, 2012 and it being delivered to his workplace four days later. She also knew nothing about why he would have ordered it, she said.

She explained that he ordered lots of items relating to model aeroplanes from the internet and would have them delivered to their home.

She was then shown a photograph of a spade, which the court had heard was found in a wooded area close to where Ms O’Hara’s remains were discovered.

She was asked if she recognised it.

“I do,” she replied. “The spade from our garden.”

She confirmed that she recalled a time that a spade was missing from their garden.

“It’s something that came to mind after the arrest,” she said.

She said that she often used their spade to clear a neighbour’s dog’s droppings from their back garden, but she noticed that the spade was missing during the summer of 2013.

“I mentioned it to Graham a number of times and, in the end, I just used a plastic spade from the sand pit,” she said.

She was asked if there was anything about the spade that she recognised.

“The stickers were familiar, but also the spatters of orangey red paint on it,” she said, explaining that their shed and fencing had been painted with Fence Life paint that had gotten everywhere.

She was then asked about a different spade found in her garden. She said that she noticed it after the Gardaí had searched their home and had presumed that the officers had left it behind.

She said that this was not the spade she had been missing in the summer of 2013.

She was then shown a photograph of a swing set in her back garden, taken on March 5, 2011.

She identified a spade beside the swing as ‘our spade’, the one that was missing in the summer of 2013.

Mrs Dwyer confirmed that she had received a letter from her husband on February 28, 2014. This was then read out by Seán Guerin SC, prosecuting.

“Do not believe the Gardaí. They actually have no evidence, apart from my name and someone else’s phone number in that awful girl’s diary.

“I did know her, yes. I was helping her and I wasn’t totally honest with you.

“There is another man, someone who likes Real Madrid and wears pink underwear, who is involved in this.

“I believe this girl committed suicide and this man disposed of some embarrassing items on her behalf.

“She tried to kill herself several times. Why do you think none of her family are pushing this? I saved her life once.”

The letter continued that Ms O’Hara had been discharged from a mental hospital that day and that there was evidence she obtained a prescription for eight items.

“I should have gone to the police when she went missing. I might have known where she might be, but I didn’t,” concluded the letter.

Detective Sergeant Peter Woods was called to the witness box to give evidence about the spade that Mrs Dwyer found in her garden following the garda search.

Under cross examination by Remy Farrell SC, defending, he said that the Gardaí had not taken the spade to the search.

The court heard that the Gardaí had shown both spades to a man who has been selling garden tools for more than 30 years.

Niall Nugent of True Temper was also shown the spades in court. He said that the spade that Mrs Dwyer had found in her garden was a True Temper spade.

He read out a code stamped on the shaft: ’13 02’.

“That’s February 2013. That’s when the head would be stamped,” he said, explaining that this took place in China.

He said that this spade would have been available for sale in Ireland some months later.

He was also shown the spade found in Killakee. He said this was also a True Temper spade, but part of the Homeowner range and of a different type of construction.

“This would be a spade that was forged in Cork prior to 2009,” he said.

He was then shown the 2011 photograph of the swing set from the Dwyer family garden and was asked about the spade in the picture.

“For sure it’s a True Temper Homeowner spade,” he testified. “I know all of our competitors’ labelling.”

The jury earlier heard that the internet search: ‘I want to die’ was found on Elaine O’Hara’s laptop.

Detective Garda Brid Wallace of the Garda Computer Crime Section was being cross examined by Mr Farrell SC.

She agreed that she had found search terms on Ms O’Hara’s AppleMac laptop dating from July 11 and 12, 2012.

These included: ‘Black hanging woman’, ‘Woman stabbing’, ‘Prostitute stabbing’ and a search about a Swedish man’s suicide live on the internet. She explained that this man’s name was actually included in the search term.

Mr Farrell asked her about a search for the words, ‘I want to die’ being found on the laptop.

“I believe these are Detective Garda McCarthy’s searches,” she said, referring to another witness in the trial.

D Gda Wallace agreed that she also found searches for ‘Hellfire Club, Dublin’, ‘The Lead Mines’ and ‘When did Bandura die?’

The jury also heard snippets from Ms O’Hara’s diary in which she wrote about wanting the physical urges to go away and wanting to cut.

The court heard too that Ms O’Hara had received almost 10,000 hits on her alt.com profile.

The trial has heard that Ms O’Hara was last seen in Shanganagh, South Dublin on the evening of August 22.

A cause of death could not be determined when her skeletal remains were discovered at Killakee.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of five women and seven men.