A son of Graham Dwyer was shown stills from CCTV footage at Elaine O'Hara's apartment block to see if he could identify anyone, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Giving evidence in the trial of Mr Dwyer, Det Garda Paul Corcoran, a family liaison officer, said he showed a booklet of stills from Belarmine Plaza, Stepaside, to Sennan McShea.
Asked by Ann Marie Lawlor, for the prosecution, the purpose of showing the photographs, Det Corcoran said they were aware that Mr McShea was the son of Mr Dwyer.
“The purpose of showing them to him was to see if he could identify anyone in the stills that were in the booklet,” he said. “He would have been shown all the stills in the booklet and he would have selected the ones he was most confident with.”
He said Mr McShea signed the reverse side of a number of the photos and the ones he identified were the ones exhibited.
Det Corcoran also told the jury he showed photos of clothes, including a hoodie and a vest, to members of Ms O’Hara’s family. “They were in a position to say they were clothing she would have worn,” he said.
He also said he was given items by Ms O’Hara’s father, Frank O’Hara, including photographs, a red journal and keys.
Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, Dublin, is charged with murdering childcare worker Ms O’Hara (36) in Co Dublin on August 22nd, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ms O’ Hara’s remains were found on Kilakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, on September 13th, 2013.
The jury had been shown CCTV footage allegedly of Mr Dwyer and of Ms O’Hara at Belarmine on dates between January 18th and August 26th. The court was told 11 officers viewed the thousands of hours of footage.
Footage
Sgt Kevin Duggan confirmed no other person was identified by name in the logs created by gardaí who examined the footage.
There were “many, many” people coming and going from the 30 apartments in Ms O’Hara’s apartment block, he said. The majority of people remained unidentified.
He agreed the Garda log only recorded the date and camera on which people were seen and whether they were male or female.
Under cross-examination from Ronan Kennedy, for the defence, Sgt Duggan acknowledged the Garda footage log recorded for June 29th, 2012, included eight entries stating “unable to view”.
He said he “stood over” all footage viewed up to the time he was transferred from Dundrum Garda station on December 10th. Up to that, there was no record of any difficulty viewing the footage, he said.
Sgt Duggan denied sightings allegedly of Mr Dwyer on April 6th, June 26th, and July 9th, 2012, had been missed.
Mr Kennedy highlighted a clip shown to the jury in which Ms O’Hara is seen exiting the complex door.
He said it appeared Ms O’Hara had managed to go downstairs or out of the lift without being captured by the CCTV.
Sgt Duggan responded that the CCTV expert had said the cameras contained motion sensors and “worked perfectly”.
Garda Robert O’Keeffe, who prepared the montage of clips for court, said he was satisfied it reflected the footage from the CCTV. He was asked by Mr Kennedy why he thought Ms O’Hara could not be seen going down the stairs or coming out of the lift in one clip.
“It was motion-sensored and the camera mightn’t have kicked in for that few seconds,” Garda O’Keeffe said.
Items seized
Gardaí also gave evidence of items seized during a search of Mr Dwyer’s home at Kerrymount Close on October 17th and 18th, 2013.
These included a grey and black North Face jacket taken from an Audi in the drive; a two-drawer filing cabinet and documents from it. The documents included a letter from Mr McShea in which smoking was mentioned; documents from the District Court related to family law proceedings, birth certificates for Mr Dwyer’s six-year-old son and for his two-year-old daughter.
There were letters related to Mr Dwyer’s salary that showed he took two pay cuts, in 2010 and 2011, which reduced his salary from €87,350 to €70,000. Bills from Advanced Pitstop and a document related to family law proceedings in Ballyshannon with an appointment for July 6th, 2012, were removed.
Computers, laptops, a hard drive, two media storage devices and a tube of arnica cream, found in a child’s bedside locker, were also seized by gardaí.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt told jurors evidence in the trial would continue on Friday.
