A man who met up with Elaine O'Hara after making contact on a lifestyle website, told a jury at the Central Criminal Court she spoke to him about cut marks on her abdomen that were "not consensual".
Mark Guerin was one of six men who gave evidence at the trial of Graham Dwyer about contacts they had with Ms O'Hara via websites.
Mr Dwyer (42), an architect from Kerrymount Close in Foxrock, is charged with murdering Dublin childcare worker Ms O’Hara (36) on August 22nd, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ms O’ Hara’s remains were found in forestry on Kilakee Mountain, Rathfarnham, on September 13th, 2013.
Mr Guerin said he used alt.com, a site Ms O’Hara was registered on, four or five years ago, and he had the user name “time2killindublin”. He said he met up with Ms O’Hara where she lived at the time in Blackrock and she brought him back to her “bedsit style” accommodation in Ardmeen Lodge.
He said she placed items on the bed including restraints and he recognised the cuffs and chains from a photograph shown in court. Ms O’Hara gave the impression she was nervous, had low self-esteem and was “not very affectionate”.
They talked quite a bit about her past and spoke about a previous and current partner, self-harming and also about “cutting marks not consensual” on her abdomen. “Do you mean not done by herself?” counsel asked. The witness agreed. He said they talked for an hour and did not have sex.
Ms O’Hara got in touch with him again when she moved to her apartment in Belarmine, Stepaside. He said she was in very good form and he helped her move things in the apartment. He agreed that she again laid things out on the bed including restraints and three black, rubber anal plugs. He believed she was embarrassed, but she was in a much lighter mood than before and they had sex on that occasion.
He agreed that Ms O’Hara was “more into restraints, bloodletting, degradation and humiliation” and he was “more into wax play and light kink”. They both formed the view they were not “compatible for play” and did not see each other again.
Robert Cullen-Jones said he met Ms O’Hara on website alt.com. He agreed Ms O’Hara’s profile name was “helpmelearn36/f”. His user name was “Dublin_master”. He said they agreed to meet at the Dundrum shopping centre in April 2011. They spent an hour over coffee and then went to Ms O’Hara’s apartment at Belarmine Plaza, Stepaside and had sex. Ms O’Hara showed him some “sexual paraphernalia” he said, including handcuffs and what he thought were battery-powered vibrators.
Asked if he recognised an anal plug shown on screen, he recalled the shape of it, but couldn’t recall what it was. He said he maybe saw two of them in Ms O’Hara’s apartment. He said Ms O’Hara told him she had a fantasy to engage in sexual games, bondage and restraint and this involved her being tied up and being submissive and giving up control.
Mr Cullen-Jones said they met for coffee again, but did not have sex and the relationship “fizzled out”.
He was approached by gardaí in late August 2012 and he gave a DNA sample and allowed them examine his laptop.
Under cross-examination by Remy Farrell SC, Mr Cullen-Jones agreed a lot of people have an interest in submissive or dominant relationships. He was asked to explain various terms used on the website, including breath play, restraint, bondage, wax play and knife play.
Ms O’Hara’s profile on the website was shown to the jury. She described herself as having been “a sub on and off for a while”. “I’ve learnt a lot, I still have a lot to learn”, the profile said.
It said her fetish was bondage, she loved being in chains and serving a master. She wanted a “24/7 master” but had “no expectations”. “Call me fuck meet”, the profile said. It also said her ideal person was someone who could train her to be the best submissive she could be, as well as being, caring, loving, trustworthy and strict.
Ms O’Hara had ticked boxes about her tastes. These included bondage, collar and leash, kidnapping, slapping in the face, spanking, verbal humiliation, mummification, sensory deprivation and knife play. The profile page included an image of a woman tied up and bent over.
“It is clear Ms O’Hara was putting herself forward as a submissive, explicitly describing herself as a slave using that terminology,” Mr Farrell said. Mr Cullen-Jones agreed.
Asked by Mr Farrell if he had sent Ms O’Hara a text message at 1.46am on August 19th, 2012, he said he did not recall, but it could have happened.
Witness Bernard Grealy also gave evidence of making contact with Ms O’Hara via the website. He said they never met up, but sent texts to each other for a few weeks. He agreed the contacts involved discussing sexual fantasies.
Witness Sean Byrne was contacted by gardaí after his number was found in Ms O’Hara’s phone. He agreed he had been on fetlife.com and his user name was “thestrictone”. He also used other websites. He did not recall a user name allegedly used by Ms O’Hara, “chainedbrunette”.
Under cross-examination, he agreed he had also used alt.com as user name “Truemaster10”. He agreed with Mr Farrell that “a fair number of Irish people are interested in these sites”.
Witness Patrick McGuirk said he did not know how his phone number was on Ms O’Hara’s phone. He did not know her and never met her. He said he was a member on collaredme.com, but would only “drift in and out of it”. He didn’t believe he met anyone from it and did not recognise the user name “chainedbrunette”. But he said he did make contact with a woman from the southside of Dublin.
Witness Kurt Ronnkuist, originally from Sweden, but living in Dublin, came to the attention of gardaí through instant messages with Ms O’Hara they found on the alt.com.
He said he never met her and did not recognise a photo of her. He did allow gardaí to take a DNA sample from him and take his photograph.
In other evidence, the court heard from estate agent Rowena Quinn, of Hunter’s Estate Agents, Foxrock formerly Space Property Consultants, Pembroke Street. She said the company had advertised a property for sale at Willow Park, Druid’s Valley, Cabinteely from July to September 2011. She said 16 people had registered an interest in it. She did not recall speaking to Mr Dwyer or Ms O’Hara about it.
Mr Farrell also told the trial his client would not require the prosecution to prove the chain of evidence of more than 500 exhibits and this would shorten the trial.
The case continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt.
