Graham Dwyer lost his appeal against his 2015 conviction for the murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara.
The Court of Appeal delivered its judgement in the Graham Dwyer appeal on 24th March 2023. The judgment, which was delivered by the court’s president, Mr. Justice George Birmingham, dismissed Dwyer’s case on all grounds of appeal, including in relation to the admissibility of mobile phone call data records.
The court agreed with the prosecution that there was enough evidence, even if the disputed call data evidence had been excluded, to support the conviction. The “limited” call data evidence in controversy was “not very significant at all” and was properly admitted into evidence, it ruled.
The court noted that there was evidence outside of the call data evidence to support the prosecution case that two of the phones that formed part of the prosecution case were linked to Dwyer. There was evidence to the same effect, independent of the call data records, that was “as powerful and perhaps more compelling”.
The president of the court concluded by stating - “we have not been prepared to uphold any ground of appeal. We have not been persuaded that the trial was unfair or that the verdict was unsafe. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed”.
The full judgement can be found here.