Graham Dwyer wins legal action over mobile phone data
Graham Dwyer has won his legal action against the State and the Garda Commissioner over the retention of access of his mobile phone data.
Mr Dwyer claimed that data gathered by Gardaí from his phone should not have been used in the trial where he was convicted of the murder of Elaine O'Hara.
Communication data, including location data, gathered from Dwyer’s work phone placed the phone at a specific place at a particular time.
That data was used to link Dwyer to another mobile phone (referred to as the “master phone”) that the prosecution said Dwyer acquired and used to contact Ms O’Hara.
Ms O’Hara used another mobile phone (referred to as the ‘slave’ phone), which was recovered by gardaí.
Quick Q&A:
— TJ McIntyre (@tjmcintyre) December 6, 2018
1. Does it mean GD’s conviction is overturned? No. That’s a matter for the Court of Appeal.
2. Will the Court of Appeal do so? Probably not. There are exceptions for evidence gathered lawfully at the time, which becomes unlawful due to “subsequent legal developments" https://t.co/Cjqd9Nq4J7
The garda investigation traced the movements of both phones and the times of contacts between them.
Dwyer, who denies killing Ms O’Hara, claimed the provisions are unconstitutional and breached his rights under the EU Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to privacy.
The Cork-born architect was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2015 for the murder of Elaine O’Hara, whose remains were recovered at a forest at Killakee in the Dublin Mountains in September 2013.
