Alleged murder victim Elaine O'Hara had only been discharged from a psychiatric hospital on the afternoon she was killed, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has been told.
The 36-year-old a child care worker who lived at Belarmine in Stepaside, South Dublin, was released from St Edmundsbury Hospital in Lucan at noon on August 22nd, 2012, prosecution counsel Seán Guerin said.
Graham Dwyer (42), a south Dublin architect, is charged with murdering Ms O'Hara on that date. He has pleaded not guilty.
In his opening statement, Mr Guerin told the jury Ms O’Hara had been an inpatient in hospital for five or six weeks, though she was free to come and go.
She was discharged on Wednesday, August 22nd and went to her apartment in Belarmine. She visited a pharmacist to fill a prescription and also made contact with a newsagent where she worked part-time. He said she was anxious to know what hours she would be working because she had volunteered to work at the Tall Ships’ Festival the following day.
She visited her father in his home in the afternoon, Mr Guerin said, and they both went to Shanganagh Cemetery to visit her mother’s grave. She left her father at 4pm and went home, he said.
A neighbour saw her leave home in her car at 5pm and a witness out running in the park beside Shanganagh Cemetery spoke to her briefly at 5.45pm, the jury was told.
She asked directions to a pedestrian bridge over the railway, which led from the park to the beach. The witness saw her cross over the bridge, and was the last witness to see her alive that day, Mr Guerin said.
Ms O’Hara was not reported as missing until Friday when there was sufficient cause for concern. Her car was found beside Shanganagh Cemetery.
