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Updated 1opm
GRAHAM DWYER WAS sentenced to life in prison today, a sentence Justice Tony Hunt said he “richly deserves”.
Eleven of the 12 jurors who sat through some of the most horrific evidence of any Irish murder trial were in court earlier today to hear the sentencing.
Justice Hunt, the judge who presided over the trial for more than two months, told the jury that he was “surprised” to see them in court, but was delighted to welcome them back.
Dressed in a navy suit and tie
Dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and navy blue tie, Dwyer looked calm and collected in court and listened to the evidence of the case being summarised by the prosecution.
Mr Dwyer’s father Sean, and Ms O’Hara’s family were also in court 13, which was filled to capacity.
A victim impact statement from Elaine’s father, Frank O’Hara, was read to the court by senior counsel for the prosecution Sean Guerin. The statement said that their family is serving a life sentence, for which there is no parole.
Addressing the court, Judge Hunt said that it had been a “harrowing” trial for all families involved. “There are three family units embroiled in this horrendous business.”
While he said it was hard to harbour any good thoughts towards Mr Dwyer, he said that he did have a family who were also suffering.
He told the court that he was now free to comment on the case.
Dignity throughout the trial
The judge commended the O’Hara’s for conducting themselves with dignity throughout the trial. He said that it was clear that Ms O’Hara was well cared for. “My heart went out to them, it still does,” he said.
“They did the best they could… they have no need to reproach themselves.”
He added that the family were subject to a “nightmare scenario” where they had to hear such personal aspects of Ms O’Hara’s personal life.
The judge said that Ms O’Hara was a person broader than the person displayed in the criminal trial. He said she was an ordinary person, who “only wanted someone to mind her”.
He said the family conducted themselves with great composure and said the attack on their truthfulness and credibility was by a person whose “own credibility is on the level of the floor”.
“There was much more to this girl than the difficulties she had,” said the judge, who said it came across that she was likeable and that people had a lot of time for her, “despite her occasional oddities” for which the judge said: “We all have those.”
Speaking about Dwyer he said his observations were that Ms O’Hara was “used and abused” by Dwyer. He said this continued, even after her death where he continued to misuse and abuse her by using her suicidality in “an attempt to slither out” of taking responsibility for her death.
“But the jury saw through all that,” he added.
He said Mr Dwyer was a very “unlucky man” in so far as evidence surfaced a year after Ms O’Hara’s death due to the good weather, a diligent garda officer and some curious anglers.
‘A dangerous man’
“A dangerous man is now out of the way, and I am satisfied he is that,” said the judge.
Making reference to particular aspects of the trial, the judge said the Buck Special knife he researched to the “nth degree” with the help of Ms O’Hara.
“Ordered by a man with multiple pay cuts, on interest only and hidden away” in his workplace, said the judge. “Why was it kept there?”
In the year up the trial Dwyer made multiple attempts for bail, said the judge, who commented that he was refused bail as he “presented a clear and present danger” which was evident by the knife.
Describing Dwyer he said he displayed “arrogance” and “delusion” in his demeanour.
The judge also said it was worth mentioning Mr Dwyer’s wife, Gemma, who gave evidence in the trial.
He said it was hard to imagine what she is facing now with two young children. He commended her also for the statement she released after the conviction in which she offered her condolences to the O’Hara family. He said this required a broad back and a generous spirit.
Abused his wife
Justice Hunt said she was another person to have in our thoughts as he too misled and abused his wife. Upon mentioning his wife, this was the first time Dwyer showed any real reaction in court, dropping his head, looking down at the ground.
Describing her condition in court that day, he said that Mrs. Dwyer was in a “pitiful position”.
He specifically mentioned how just days before his wife was due to give birth in March 2011, Dwyer was texting Ms O’Hara to start up their sexual relationship again. “That says all you need to know about Mr Dwyer,” said the judge, as Dwyer slightly shook his head.
Justice Hunt said the questions the O’Hara family asked in the victim impact statement about Ms O’Hara’s last hours alive “jump off the page”. However, he said that murder trials are not designed to provide answers to all questions.
However, in saying that he said he hoped that the “horrendous ordeal” the family had been subjected to over the two months gave some insight into how their daughter and sibling was taken from them.
He said he hoped some light had been shone upon the “dark corners, in this dark story”.
He said while it will be difficult not to dwell on these unanswered questions, there is only one person who knows those answers, and he has “continued to manifest untruths” so that the answer to those questions may never be known.
“No remorse of any kind was expressed,” said the judge, while also mentioning it as “a bizarre spectacle” that Dwyer issued a press statement following his conviction.
“Another first in my experience.”
He also pointed out that the statement made no reference to the deceased, her family or indeed his own wife.
The judge has no discretion in the term of length of the sentence and imposed a mandatory life sentence on Dwyer dating from 17 October 2013.
“It’s difficult to look beyond the chilling and premeditated murder, execution almost, carried out after a protracted campaign of the most vile manipulation and abuse of a woman who was too weak to resist and who made the fatal mistake of trusting Mr Dwyer that we wasn’t going to go any further than he indicated on August 22.”
“When you read the booklet of texts you want to cry out to her to stop and turn back. Of course it was too late for that.
“So that is it. Life it is,” concluded Judge Hunt.
Dwyer, a successful architect and father of three was found guilty of the murder of Elaine O’Hara last month. The jury of seven men and five women returned a unanimous guilty verdict after a trial lasting more than two months.
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It’s all well and good but there’s little point in raising the minimum wage or giving everyone a living wage when it’s all taken off you in tax and USC before you get it.
Have you calculated how much USC you pay on the minimum wage or even double or triple the minimum wage?
Here:
Someone on the minimum adult wage of €8.65 an hour would earn €340.60 for a 40 hour working week – or €17,992 gross over a full year.
A single minimum wage earner will be taxed – and will have deductions of €298 for income tax and €404 for Universal Social Charge over the year – resulting in a net weekly pay of just €332 (€8.30 per hour)
Please stop introducing facts into clueless rants
He’s correct that the minimum wage shouldn’t be raised but not for the reasons stated. Raising the minimum wage will push inflation up and result in the living wage also increasing. The net effect will be the same or a reduction in the amount of people earning a living wage as inflation exceeds the wage increase.
Jason,
Do you think before you type?
How else can we address wage inequality, where we live in an economy where the lesser paid are subsidising the better paid, as the last budget has shown?
Paul, How is someone on minimum wage, paying €8.60 per week in tax and USC, subsidising someone better off?
Paul, I’m a self employed Autism tutor. The amount of tax and USC I pay is sickening. No one on €8.65 is subsidising me.
“Do you think before you type?”
Do you? How can we address wage inequality by forcing the minimum wage up? By raising the minimum wage, the costs of hiring employees for businesses will increase which means a knock-on increase in prices. As this happens the living wage will increase, thus negating the point of raising the minimum wage in the first place.
This has happened every single time the minimum wage has been increased.
What youre effectively saying Jason is that the minimum wage is completely inadequate in affording someone earning it a decent standard of living, and no matter how much it is raised by, it will always mean that those on the bottom get the short end of the stick? What a great little system that is.
Basically Dylan i’m saying that a hard-set minimum wage has proven to be ineffective. Look at countries like the Nordics with high average income and no minimum wage, instead wages are determined on a sector-by-sector basis through collective bargaining.
A vote for fg labour is a vote for cheap labour.Fact.
Bobby, a vote for SF/AAA is a vote for no Labour. Fact (does that make indisputable?)
3 in 4 workers more like it
How many of these people are in the 500,000 family members who are in the “long term mortgage arrears/distress club”?
How many of these people are in the 500,000 citizens who are in the “technically bankrupt for the last 5-6-7 years club”?
How many people are in the “50% of all SME loans are in arrears club”?
How many of more people will go down the chute because of Irish Water bills, and other government austerity procedures?
It’s not much good earning enough to have an “adequate standard of living”, if all that money is pledged to a bank?
It’s unbearable for these ignored men, women, children, OAPs to hear Kenny out preaching that things “are mended”
when the guts of a million Irish people are incarcerated in financial solitary confinement, and another half a million of our young have emigrated.
3 out of 4 is right,put up the wages and its gone the other end!USC was brought in for austerity and to help the banks! the banks are in profit now and we are still paying!!??OUT WITH THE UNIVERSAL SOCIAL CHARGE OR OUT WITH FINEGAEL AND LABOUR!
please let this be everybodys election motto!
For ‘Neven’ Institute…read ICTU…Trade union propaganda… Come on Journal.ie you can do better than this.
I earn 9.25 an hour working a chemist for the government. A master degree living in Dublin and I am allowed 1 pub night a month! Can’t afford much more living in Dublin which considering how hard I worked for all my degrees and peer reviewed papers I published is pretty dam depressing. It might be trade union propaganda but it might but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
No disrespect, but, have you considered a career with ALDI, pays a hell of a lot better,
http://www.careers.aldirecruitment.ie/store-opportunities/index.asp
Hans, is that an entry level job with good long term career prospects? Or are you already at the wage ceiling?
I do agree that the minimum wage is not sufficient to cover the cost of daily life. The business I work for pays a minimum of €10 per hr with the majority earning 10.50-11. We have a lot of part time workers, mostly ladies. We pay the same rates across the board regardless of gender. A number of ladies do earn less than than others at our business due to working part time hours, the hourly rate is the same. All staff are treated equally however their working hours are their choice, I don’t think these studies consider part time hours. I’m not saying inequality doesn’t exist it’s just not as pandemic as is insinuated, every employer I have ever worked for paid equally.
If all of our team were to be paid 11.45 per hr then this cost would have to be passed on to our clients, as a small business we couldn’t absorb that cost.
You’re full of s**t.
Most women only work part time as they have children. I’m sure the women would choose to work full time if they have no kids or older women whose mortgage is paid.
I assume you are doing the junior cert and not of working age?
And you are the fount of all knowledge
Hard to believe whatever is posted here by those with newly created temporary Twitter accounts, its very hard to validate or verify.
What’s the problem in using your real name?
Sorry “Dermot” but you haven’t contributed to the debate in any way. We are discussing pay rates and supposed inequality. What are you discussing??
I love the bit at the end. If gubberment doesn’t sort this out, it might hurt de economie! What do you mean “evidence”? Why would I need that?
€8.65 is for students living at home and is a fair wage, if you have half a brain you won’t be earning this in your 30′s.
A couple of years ago that might have been the case…but employers are setting wages as low as they can and the lack of real jobs makes the hope of finding something better a pipe dream
Look at the fas/intreo jobsite..even for skilled/semi skilled /trade positions the rates are barely above min wage and well below living wage
Welcome to the new ireland.
Was the Ireland where trades people earned €2k to €3k a week sustainable?!
Stephen that sounds such a snobby comment. There are loads of people in their thirties who are unemployed or earning minimum wage who have a 2 full halves of a brain. It’s that sort of talk that has people depressed and suicidal in this country.
Jack i’m far from a snob, if you want more cash you need to do two things, 1 work harder and 2 get educated about the industry you choose, don’t expect to earn more just because you are a certain age and think you deserve it.
True, I kind of agree but being low paid doesn’t mean you’re thick.
€3k a week? That is only slightly below Enda’s salary. Who was earning that much?
How do you calculate the hours worked… If paid a salary you could put in 45 to 50 hours and be paid for 39
Minimum wage was never designed to be something you would live comfortably on as a head of household. Wage inequality is better addressed by moving people up the chain and with what is effectively free education when compared to many other countries, you can’t say that there is no opportunity to improve your prospects. I always have to laugh at the students every year saying they are starving to death and have no way of earning the €3500-4000 to pay for their education. By continually focusing on minimum wage we are dumbing down the work force rather than lifting people into more skilled pursuits.
Seems to me that when you are so quick to reward someone for effectively doing nothing other than signing on every week we are removing any shred of ambition for self improvement. Let’s spend our money and time getting people retrained in areas that actually require workers and find some way to require those on long term benefits to up skill rather than dumb down. It’s no shock that many of the people trying to live on minimum wage are products of multigenerational dependence on the State and the lack of motivation and ambition it engenders. Let’s get them into school or training and move their prospects up rather than bring the wages up to reward mediocrity.
Minimum wage jobs were meant for students, teens, retired and those wishing to work part time to supplement other income, not to live comfortably on.
yea i understand what you mean but you’re wrong on the theory, would be great and all but… you have qualified and experienced people working jobs for not so much the min. wage but not much above it like €12 to €14 per hour, taking home €450 after tax if they’re lucky, thats actually the average not the €650 you hear them spout out. Not much of an improvement is it after years of experience and studying hard for qualifications? Its not going to get much better with access to people to willing to undercut you by €10k. wages are not going up unless you have something in short supply and that small supply bracket is getting smaller and smaller so what next?
The midlands is a wasteland full of dead or dying towns. Streets of closed shops pubs etc. I went to a fas officer lately to enquire about any training courses n he told me there were none and advised me to get as far away from the Midlands as I could. His exact words. Enough said.
The Nevin Economic Research Institute is supported by a number of unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Anybody got some salt I can have a pinch of?
One thing that could be noted in that too is a lot of the 1 in 4 might be students still living at home.
Show me where my job is. I’ve loads of customer services, front of house and general hospitality experience.
I’m married, my husband works, we get FIS, I’m not on the dole.
Show me a job within an hours travel from me in North Mayo that is isn’t JobsBridge, Apprenticeship or CE Scheme. And I have to eliminate them, I’m not eligible. I’m not claiming.
It’s not about the money, though extra would be nice. We have enough to pay the bills, and do something nice every now and then.
It’s about having a job, making a contribution. Having adult conversation. A sense of accomplishment and self worth.
Show me the job. Cos I want it. I need it. I’ve been searching for it.
you see Gemma, you’re not just out of school, you are an experienced adult and you’re experiencing what thousands are going through here as well. They think its all about under 26 year olds. Suits them for others to think that way. You’re right.
That is a side effect. You have to go where the work is. Sadly, the Midlands isn’t somewhere people want to locate businesses.
That must be only in towns as the countryside is far worse…
The key problem to crack is very good training for people on low hourly rates who are perfectly capable of much better paid work.
Unfortunately, if they are pressurised with other commitments outside of their current working hours it is very difficult to be studying at the same time, let alone the cost and insight in selecting the right course, if it is even available.
I don’t know who is to blame – but the wage figure used should be the median – not the average. The average is skewed by high earners. This is basic stats and either the author or the Neven Institute is at fault.
So the more relevant figure is that the median wage is €16.62.
While supporting the minimum wage strategy, it has to be pointed out that if it is increased along the lines being proposed it will lead to widespread job losses in the areas that are stagnant or static at the moment. It’s not rocket Science If there no growth and higher wage bills there will be less work, leading to more unemployment and further stagnation and so the cycle will continue. The Goverment must urgently employ a policy of Positive Discrimination in favour of the Border,Midland,West,regions of the country that have been neglected by numerous Governments down through the years. We deserve our infrastructure as well as the other parts of the Country so we have a chance to generate Employment and revitalise our region. Perhaps the NERI or the NEVIN Institute could look at Goverment Spending over the last 25 years so we could get a complete picture and see if all areas have been treated eaquilly and fairly.
Claims that job creation is disproportional and weak in the west and north countered with claims that south east got 25% of all jobs and midlands got 9%. Ok, so how many were gained in the west and north?
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