Elaine O’Hara text said 'I don't want you to stab me any more'

Pay-as-you-go mobile phones were used to send and receive the great majority of texts the State contends incriminate Graham Dwyer in the alleged murder of Elaine O'Hara.

The earliest text was sent in March 2011, allegedly for the purposes of Mr Dwyer renewing an old sexual relationship with Ms O’Hara.

It read: “Hi Elaine, hope you are keeping well.”

Ms O’Hara responded: “Who is this please”

Seán Guerin SC, for the prosecution, suggested subsequent texts would show that during previous contact, Ms O’Hara – who required psychiatric “care and medication” – had been stabbed as part of sexual activities.

The barrister claimed the text exchanges over a long period revealed Ms O’Hara and married father of two Mr Dwyer engaged in bondage, domination, sadism and masochism (BDSM) sexual practices.

One text sent to her read: “My urge to rape, stab, kill is huge. You have to help me control or satisfy it.”

Another said: “If you ever decided one day, promise me I will send you off.”

She replied: “Unfortunately I am not suicidal.”

The texter then assures her he is not angry with her, adding: “I have everything ready if it becomes too much. Just think, all your worries gone.”

Another stated: “I can put you to sleep. I know you want it; 30 seconds to slip into oblivion.”

Suicide attempts

On April 1st, 2011, Ms O‘Hara, who had a history of psychiatric problems, self- harm incidents and suicide attempts, was told via text: “If you ever want to die, promise me I can do it.” To which Ms O’Hara replied: “Yes, I promise sir.”

Weeks later, on April 21st, 2011, Ms O’Hara’s phone was texted again: “I am a sadist. I enjoyed others’ pain. You should help me inflict pain on you and help me with my fantasies.”

Another text to Ms O’Hara read: “I want to stick my knife in flesh when I am sexually aroused. Blood turns me on. I’d like to stab a girl to death one day.”

Mr Guerin alleged in some of those very earliest exchanges after contact was renewed in March 2011, Ms O’Hara said she was “not into blood anymore”.

He said on July 30th, 2011, Ms O’Hara further stated: “I don’t want you to stab me any more”.

In another text, the other person suggested to Ms O’Hara one way they might kill her: “I’ll take off your clothes, stab you, bury you, leave your clothes in your car by the sea. Looks like you drowned.”

But after Ms O’Hara met the other person in the last days of July, 2011, she texted him: “I’m sorry sir, I will miss you.”

To which the other number replied: “Sorry to lose you.”

On August 2nd, Ms O’Hara texted: “I will miss you sir but if I am ever to find a man and have kids, which is what I really want, I have to be free of stabbing. Unless you want to give me a child sir.”

The other texter then advised her to take folic acid but cautioned having a child would “finish off” any chance she had of finding a partner.

Stab wounds

The jury was told Ms O’Hara then decided it would be better to have a child within a relationship, adding by text to the person the State claims is Mr Dwyer: “You have no idea how hard that is to get now that I am covered in so many stab wounds.”

The jury heard the other texter was abusive about Ms O’Hara’s smoking, being disobedient and being “old and fat”.

The other person, alleged to be Mr Dwyer, offered to pay for sexual services, which was declined by Ms O’Hara, from which point the contact was very infrequent.

But in August 2012, the person texting Ms O’Hara asked: “If anything happened to you, who knows about me?”

She said while some people knew of her sexual preferences she had “told nobody about you”.

To which the texter replies: “Good, let’s keep it that way.”

Another text to her at that time read: “You must be punished for trying to kill yourself without me and being unavailable for so long.”

And another to her stated: “Did a huge walk up the Dublin mountains yesterday. Very lonely hill walkers up there. Just to find a route back with no cameras. Then I’m sorted.”

On August 21st, 2012 – the day before she was last seen alive – Ms O’Hara texted the other number saying she was looking forward to getting out of hospital. But she was worried about how she would cope and also about her “punishment”.

The other person texted: “If it doesn’t work out this time the way out is through me.”

The texter then wrote: “You have a big punishment coming up. Getting knifed in the guts. You will be well bound and gagged, tied to a tree, deep in the forest. I have a spot picked out.”

Ms O’Hara said she did not want to leave her apartment when released from hospital, to which the texter replied: “You will do what you are f***ing told, I want outdoor play or I’ll double punish you and hang you.”

Ms O’Hara, about to leave a psychiatric hospital having been there for five or six weeks, texted: “Please don’t mention killing for a while, just until I get settled back into life.”

The texter then assured her that a meeting later that day would take the form of “pretending to do someone for real”.

The State contends she met Mr Dwyer that day and he murdered her in the spot in the Dublin mountains where her partial skeletal remains were found 13 months later.

Mundane messages

While a lot of the text evidence outlined related to BDSM, other messages were more mundane. It is these the State contends proves Mr Dwyer was the person on the other phone communicating with Ms O’Hara.

In early 2011, for example, Ms O’Hara sent a text to the 083 number: “I take it you are a new daddy.”

To which the reply came: “Yes, a beautiful baby girl”, with the name of the child stated.

Mr Guerin said Mr Dwyer’s wife had given birth the previous day and the name of the child was the same as that stated in the text reply.

The State contends the phones the alleged communication between Mr Dwyer and Ms O’Hara were taking place on were bought by him specifically for that purpose.

It also contends that the two phones found in Vartry reservoir when it fell from a level of six metres to less than a metre in the warm summer of 2013 were the same phones as those purchased by Mr Dwyer to facilitate the “unusual”affair.

Rope, handcuffs, Ms O’Hara’s keys and her Dunnes Stores loyalty card were found nearby.