More than 10 gardaí arrived at the home of Graham Dwyer with a search warrant early on the morning of October 17th, 2013, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The trial of Mr Dwyer, for the alleged murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara in 2012, is in the ninth day before the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Mr Dwyer (42), with an address at Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, Co Dublin, is charged with murdering Ms O’Hara, aged 36, in Co Dublin on August 22nd, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.
The jury heard that Det Sgt Peter Woods arrested the accused when he answered his door shortly after 7am that day. Gardaí had gone to both the front and back doors and then began searching the house. An Audi and Land Rover were seized from the driveway.
The court heard Mr Dwyer answered the front door at about 7am on that morning. Arrangements were made to avoid overly interfering with family members and the search commenced properly at about 8.40am. It continued until the early hours of the next day.
At Mr Dwyer’s home, a number of items were lain on a bed and photographed. They included a bull clip. Bull clips had also been found in a location at Killakee near where Ms O’Hara’s remains were found, the court heard.
About a dozen gardaí also arrived at Mr Dwyer’s workplace, the court heard.
Det Sgt Kevin Duggan gave evidence of searching Mr Dwyer's workplace, the offices of architects A&D Wejchert on Baggot Street in Dublin, on the morning of October 17th, 2013.
The gardaí were met at the Wejchert offices by Paddy Fletcher, a partner at the firm, who showed them Mr Dwyer’s workstation.
Items taken from the offices included a computer memory stick and computers.
Det Sgt Duggan’s colleague Garda Mark Berrigan told the court that nothing of evidential value was recovered in that particular search.
Mark McGuirk of a CCTV and alarm installation company gave evidence that he was asked to examine footage from CCTV cameras at a recycling centre near Shanganagh Cemetery on August 27th 2012.
He said one of the cameras, a dome camera, had been focused on a cage storing electrical equipment. The other camera, focused back down a laneway towards the road, was not working, he said.
Mr McGuirk said the camera had been out of action for several months but that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council did not have the funds to replace it.
The court also heard evidence that gardaí took photographs of an area of the Coillte forest in Rathfarnham.
Items photographed at that site included masking tape, plastic sheeting, twine or rope, and water bottles.
James O’Dwyer, a forestry worker with Coillte, gave evidence of felling trees in the wood at Military Road in Rathfarnham in about May of 2013 when the trees had blown down to a point where it was “basically impossible” to see through the wood.
Mr O’Dwyer agreed with prosecuting counsel Seán Guerin that nothing of significance had been found on the site at that time.
The court also heard evidence that gardaí took photographs of an area of the Coillte forest in Rathfarnham, on September 20th and 21st, a week after Ms O’Hara’s remains were found.
Items photographed in the area included masking tape, plastic sheeting, twine or rope and water bottles, items of clothing, including grey trousers, denim shorts, a diving mask and a number of ‘bull clips’.
Garda Stephen Heffernan said he took photographs at an area known as ‘site B’ in the forest at Killakee on September 20th. These included cable ties, clothing, silver tape with screws in it and a metal rod.
He was also asked by Garda colleagues searching nearby to photograph some other items, which included a condom and a condom wrapper.
Under cross-examination, Garda Heffernan said he could not recall whether there was a second condom nearby.
In cross-examination, Garda Fionnuala Whelan said she and colleagues had seen a condom on the ground on September 16th, 2013, but had not seized it at that time.
The Garda said she believed at that time the condom had only been there for a few days and that it was “not relevant”.
However, she and colleagues had decided to mark it and come back to later. They then retrieved it on September 21st, she agreed.
Asked why her search log had referred to “condoms”, the Garda said she believed this had been an error on her part as her recollection was that there had been only one.
Sarah Bunn of the loyalty card firm Buy 4 Now gave evidence of having identified the Superquinn loyalty card found on Elaine O’Hara’s keyring.
She said the last transaction on Ms O’Hara’s account showed as August 9th, 2012 but that because the company’s systems took 24 hours to update, the transaction would actually have taken place a day earlier.
Legal argument continued on Monday in the absence of the jury.
Ms O’ Hara’s remains were found in the Dublin Mountains on September 13th, 2013.
The Central Criminal Court in Dublin heard last week that glasses and keys recovered in the Vartry reservoir in September 2013 belonged to Ms O’Hara.
Other items recovered by anglers and later by gardaí included a blue hoodie-type top, a white vest top, rusted chains with handcuffs, a blindfold, leg restraints, and sex toys. Knives, an inhaler and a rucksack were also recovered.
The court has now heard over 60 witnesses in the trial.
The trial continues.