Monster Graham Dwyer is set to make another attempt to have his murder conviction overturned – just weeks after losing an appeal.
The Irish Mirror has established that the killer is trying to secure permission to go to the Supreme Court to challenge his 2015 conviction for the murder three years earlier of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara, 36.
Dwyer is hoping to persuade the highest court in the land that there is a legitimate public interest in it hearing a fresh challenge to the conviction.
READ MORE - Killer Graham Dwyer's female visitor, whom he claimed was his 'girlfriend', broke off contact in 2020
The Supreme Court can give him permission for the challenge – but only if there was a matter of significant public interest, or that it should be allowed in the interests of justice.
It’s understood he has already lodged papers with the Supreme Court seeking permission to have his case heard there, but it is likely to be months before the judges make a decision.
News of his fresh bid comes a month after perverted architect Dwyer, 50, suffered a defeat in the Court of Appeal where he was fighting his conviction.
He had been hoping that court would uphold his fight against conviction – but it dismissed every argument he put forward, including a claim by Dwyer's lawyers that the use of call data records at his trial should lead to a retrial.
Detectives from Blackrock Garda Station in south Dublin who investigated the August 22, 2012 murder of Ms O’Hara used data from his work phone to link Dwyer to key evidence in the case.
That data was compared to evidence retrieved from two burner phones dumped in Vartry Reservoir in Co Wicklow after the murder and found a year later in September 2013.
The state successfully argued in the 2015 trial that Dwyer and Ms O’Hara used the phones to text each other in the run up to the murder.
He challenged the use of such data after the EU and Irish courts held that the blanket retaining of such data for all phone users – including Dwyer – went against European law But the court rejected that argument at the end of March.
Mr Justice George Birmingham, court of appeal president, said: "In this case we are quite satisfied that the admission of the very limited call data evidence that was admitted could not conceivably be regarded as giving rise to a miscarriage of justice."
He said that even if the evidence should not have been admitted at his trial, it was of little significance given that the prosecution was able to establish through other evidence that the phones, which contained evidence of his plan to murder Ms O'Hara, belonged to Dwyer.
That phone data included messages from Dwyer to O’Hara on several phones - in which he spoke of his desire to rape and murder. In one text, he told Elaine: "I'm a sadist. I enjoy others' pain. You should help me inflict pain on you and help me with my fantasies."
Another text sent by Dwyer to Elaine in June 2011 read: "I want to stick my knife in flesh while sexually aroused... blood turns me on and I'd like to stab a girl to death."
And there were dozens of them. "If you ever want to die, promise me I can do it," he wrote in April 2011. "My urge to rape, stab and kill is huge. You have to help me control or satisfy it," he told her on another occasion.
"Im having lots of thoughts about killing u," he told her in one text shortly in July 2011 – just over a year before he murdered her. He added: "I want to kill someone and also i want to hurt u as a punishment."
Dwyer fulfilled his fantasy on August 22, 2012 when he lured Elaine to Shanganagh Cemetery in south Co Dublin and then brought her to Kilakee Wood in the Dublin Mountains. There, he stabbed her to death, before watching her die, gardai believe.
Gardai mounted a major investigation to prove to a jury that Dwyer was in a secret relationship with Ms O’Hara and murdered her for his own sexual gratification.
Sources say he still insists he is innocent.
READ NEXT:
- Ex-Fianna Fáil councillor John Hussey jailed for sexually assaulting girl, 8, at sleepover in his home
- Ireland weather set for remarkable U-turn as Met Eireann give bank holiday weekend verdict
- Pilot sucked out of plane window on flight to Spain as cabin crew held onto his ankles
- Conor McGregor documentary trailer drops as release date announced
- Angela Scanlon chat show loses over 60,000 viewers in a week as RTE's weekend shows take major ratings hit
Get news updates direct to your inbox by signing up to our daily newsletter here
