Graham Dwyer court challenge
Mobile data retention practices used in the case against Graham Dwyer, who was convicted of murder, breached European law, Europe’s top court has ruled.
The Court of Justice of the EU ruled that EU law precludes the "general and indiscriminate" retention of traffic and location data relating to electronic communication for the purpose of combating serious crime.
Mobile phone data was used prominently by the prosecution in Dwyer’s trial for the murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara in 2015.
Dwyer pleaded not guilty to the charge, but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Reaction
According to a former assistant Garda commissioner, gardaí and police from other jurisdictions are now effectively hampered in their probe of serious investigations and criminality following the ruling.
In an RTÉ radio interview, Dr Pat Leahy said mobile phone data had been “central” to Garda investigations over the last number of years.
"The constraints that are being put in place now are not only going to affect police, it is going to affect the holders of the data. The service providers are equally in breach,” he said.
Roisin Costello, assistant professor in the school of law and government at DCU, said there was a now a question mark over convictions like Dwyer’s which relied on data.
Liam Herrick of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the Irish State had been on notice since 2014, as the law under which gardaí were operating did not have a sound legal basis.
In other news: Gardaí warning over WhatsApp scam
Gardaí have urged people not to engage with the sender of a damaging scam circulating among secondary school students via WhatsApp.
The message is understood to be an attempt to blackmail unsuspecting victims by threatening to circulate intimate photos of the recipient online. However, the images are fake.
Garda John Finnerty of Henry Street Garda station in Limerick city advised people to be on guard if they receive such a message and to report it to gardaí who will try to locate the sender.
Ryanair fares take off
Ryanair expects average air fares during this year's summer peak season to be 5-10 per cent higher than pre-pandemic prices in the same period of 2019, group chief executive Michael O'Leary was quoted as saying today.
Lower capacity and increased passenger demand are already driving fares higher for those booking flights from June onwards, O'Leary told the Irish Independent newspaper, citing "very strong" forward bookings.
"I think fares will be up this year in the peak summer months by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent."
O'Leary said it would be too optimistic to say that Covid-19 is over for the airline industry but he does not expect any "Covid scares" this summer.
