[1] The evidence of Dwyer's sadistic sexual practices led to the murder being called one of the most shocking crimes in Irish history.
[2] A subsequent appeal by Dwyer, which questioned the legal basis for retaining the mobile phone metadata (which was used in the prosecution case against him), was upheld by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
[1] O'Hara went missing from her home on 22 August 2012,[8] and it was initially assumed she had disappeared while volunteering at the 2012 Tall Ships' Races.
[1] On 10 September 2013, three days before the eventual discovery of O'Hara's body, anglers William Fegan, his brother, and another man spotted a bag lying in the water in Vartry Reservoir, near Roundwood, County Wicklow.
[11] Garda James O'Donoghue conducted several further searches at the scene and on 16 September found handcuffs, keys, a leather mask, a knife, an inhaler and a chain with a ring on it.
[11] A number on the frame of the glasses and the prescription matched the records for O'Hara held on file at a branch of Specsavers in Dún Laoghaire.
[12] They returned to the land with another man and within an isolated clearing, they found scattered and gnawed bones, including the remains of a rib-cage and jawbone.
[17] He studied architecture at Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street, where he began a relationship with Donegal woman Emer McShea.
[18] McShea and Dwyer finished their relationship in 1996 and a year later he began dating fellow architecture student Gemma Healy.
[20] Dwyer's architecture career took off and he started work for A&D Wejchert & Partners Architects on Lower Baggot Street on 2 July 2001.
[20] He was named a director in June 2006 and was involved in a range of major developments in Ireland, including Carlow Institute of Technology, Leopardstown racecourse, and in Poland.
[20] His hobbies included flying radio-controlled aircraft and driving luxury cars, while his wife Gemma enjoyed sailing.
[16] At the trial, the violent homemade sex videos and retrieved fragments of emails provided evidence of the sexual use of bondage, violence and knives.
[22] Seán Guerin SC, prosecuting, said that the accumulated evidence pointed to a detailed plan by Dwyer to commit and get away with murder.
Knowing she had recently been released from a psychiatric hospital, Dwyer had lured her to the cemetery intending to take her to the mountains and kill her, expecting that if her body was discovered, her death would be deemed to have been suicide.
But the attempt to conceal his relationship with her by hiding the mobile phones and O'Hara's personal effects was clear evidence of intent.
[26] In late 2021, an adviser reviewing the case on behalf of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued an opinion that the retention of mobile phone metadata was "permitted only in the event of a threat to national security", and not for the investigation of crimes.
[4] In April 2022, the CJEU ruled that the "indiscriminate retention of mobile phone metadata" was not consistent with EU law, setting the basis for the Court of Appeal in Ireland to determine whether the related evidence was admissible in Dwyer's original trial.
[3] As of late June 2022, the Irish government was considering emergency legislation to "deal with the fallout" from Dwyer's appeal and the CJEU ruling.
[32] In July 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the mobile phone data evidence was admissible at the original trial.