Garda James O'Donoghue happened to see article agleam ashore in mud at the basal of the backlog in Roundwood, Co Wicklow, the cloister heard. These were afterwards articular as keys which had a Dunnes Stores adherence agenda attached.
Gda O'Donoghue fabricated some enquiries and accustomed that the adherence agenda was registered to Elaine O'Hara, who was listed as 'missing' at the time.
The garda went to the breadth afterwards speaking to a bounded angler who begin items such as "leg restraints" and a "mouth gag" in the lake. These altar were handed to Gda O'Donoghue on September 11th.
The administrator was giving affirmation on the sixth day of the balloon of Graham Dwyer.
Mr Dwyer (42), an artist of Kerrymount Close, Foxrock, is argumentation not accusable to the annihilation of Ms O’Hara (36) at Killakee, Rathfarnham on August 22, 2012.
Ms O’Hara, a childcare abettor from Killiney, was aftermost apparent animate abreast Shanganagh Cemetery in Shankill.
Her charcoal were begin by a dog ambler in bracken in the Dublin mountains on September 13, 2013, added than a year afterwards she disappeared.
Garda O’Donoghue, of Roundwood Garda Station, said he was on assignment on September 11 aback bounded angler William Fegan came in at about 1pm.
He produced a artificial bag with a cardinal of items and Garda Donoghue took ascendancy of them.
He asked breadth Mr Fegan had amid them. Photographs of the items - restraints, cuffs, chains, hoodie, and vest, brawl gag and blinder - were apparent afresh to the board and Garda O'Donoghue accepted that these were the altar he received.
He recalled a allotment of chicken braiding actuality at the backlog afterwards but he did not booty ascendancy of it.
He said the accouterment was assimilation wet and heavily soiled. The added items, including the blindfold, were decrepit but in about acceptable action and the abstracts could be identified.
The “shackles” and restraints were discoloured by blight but contrarily in absolutely acceptable condition, he said.
It was bright the items had been apparent to baptize and by the abuse and rust, he told the court.
“I couldn’t say how connected but it appeared to be absolutely a while that they had been submerged,” Garda O’Donoghue continued.
He afraid the accouterment up on a balustrade in the station’s dehydration allowance to air dry them with a appearance to giving them in as evidence.
Other items he put into affirmation bags.
The afterward day, September 12, he phoned Mr Fegan to affirm the breadth because the backlog was big.
He afresh went to the breadth identified, declared as actuality beneath the axial eye of the bridge.
Garda O’Donoghue looked into the baptize and although the acclimate was about dry, wind fabricated the baptize addled and there was no visibility.
He saw annihilation and alternate two canicule later, on September 14.
He could still see annihilation from the arch and absolved bottomward the beach to the backlog bed. Afresh he saw nothing, and went aback on September 16.
It was 4pm and the altitude were far added favourable and about sunny. From the aforementioned breadth on the bridge, he looked over and could see a agleam article in the water. He was able to analyze it from the bridge, he told the court.
Garda O’Donoghue said he went aback to the angled arch afresh on September 16th 2013.
“Conditions were far added favourable. I bethink it was brilliant actually, no wind,” he said.“On this break I could see a agleam article in the baptize which I could analyze visually by attractive at it.”He declared seeing the end of a adhere and aggressive bottomward the beach and looked for the handcuff, put his bottom in the baptize and it sunk in mud.
“I couldn’t see it but knew it was there,” he said about his search.
With his arm connected out in the court, he showed appearance he searched by blow underwater as afterimage was aught with the mud. The baptize was alone about 12 to 14 inches deep.
“Nearly the breadth of my arm,” he said.
“I acquainted article conceivably an inch or two beneath the mud. It was active beneath the mud. I articular these as a set of keys.”
He afresh fished out a covering chains mask, which the cloister was told had a zip closing over the aperture and anniversary of the eyes and air holes over nostrils. The aback of it angry with a lace.
A ample atramentous handed kitchen knife, a decayed alternation with a balderdash arena and an inhaler were additionally retrieved, he added.
All of the items were unpacked from affirmation accoutrements and apparent in court, with a photograph of the keys apparent on a ample screen.
Gda O’Donoghue said aback he took the items out he put them in Garda affirmation accoutrements “not because I anticipation they would be of amount in the future, but for accumulator while I fabricated inquiries,” he added.
He alleged Dunnes Stores apropos one of the adherence cards on the set of keys that evening, and was alleged aback while off assignment the afterward morning.
With that information, he contacted the Garda Advice Service Centre in Castlebar which did a analysis on the capacity of Elaine O’Hara of 97 Belarmine Plaza, Stepaside.
When he heard she was a missing person, he contacted his sergeant, afresh a administrator and gardai in Dundrum Garda Station were notified.
Th cloister heard he alternate to the arch and closed off the arch as a abomination arena and several chief colleagues and the Garda underwater assemblage accustomed at the scene.
Garda O' Donoghue said he additionally handed all the exhibits he and Mr Fegan had calm to Garda James Codd, who was complex in the Ms O’Hara investigation.
Cross-examining Garda O'Donoghue, advocate Ronan Kennedy, defending, said “to accompaniment the obvious,” it was not accessible to actuate how the items begin their way into the water, or that they begin their way in at the aforementioned time.
“I couldn’t say how connected they were in the water,” Garda O’Donoghue replied.
Mr Kennedy said it was the address in which they were pulled from the baptize that gave him the catalyst to go aback and search.
Mr Kennedy said a cardinal of items had been begin afterwards including a Dire Straits CD and a mattress.
Garda O’Donoghue said he had no ability of these and could not comment.
Garda Wayne Farrell, abomination arena examiner, said he went to the backlog on September 17 at the appeal of Garda O’Donoghue and initially photographed items arresting in the baptize afore activity to retrieve them.
Among the altar arresting were the handle of a knife, with the brand mostly anchored in the baptize and a adaptable buzz with the awning and array missing.
He alternate to the roadside, put his camera aback in the van and went to the waterside with a advertise and spade.
He aboriginal retrieved the adaptable phone, afresh a set of handcuffs, followed by addition set of handcuffs absorbed calm with a chain.
He took out one of two black-handled knives, but was “up to his knees in muck” and alleged in baptize abutment to retrieve the other.
He afresh retrieved the atramentous and white sex toys, which were presented in court. The aboriginal was a white vibrator and the second, Mr Guerin said, was “referred to as an anal plug.”
The riverbed became silty so they chock-full and waited for it to achieve down.
The top of what looked like a array operated article was removed from the ancillary of the bed, as able-bodied as a cycle of atramentous careful tape.
Garda Farrell said searches added beneath the arch additionally recovered a brace of shorts and a bathrobe gown, both with the Real Madrid acme on it.
He told the cloister a red and atramentous haversack was additionally retrieved, forth with sawn off barrels of a bifold butt shotgun and a ample camera lens.
“These were placed in alter affidavit affirmation bags,” he told the court, afore the balloon chock-full for lunch.
The balloon resumed afterwards 2pm and Garda Lorcan Byrne of the Garda Baptize Assemblage told the cloister he was deployed to abetment in the chase of Vartry backlog on September 17, 2013.
He met a cardinal of colleagues including Garda Wayne Farrell, who acicular out items in the baptize that he capital recovered as he stood on the bank.
Three associates of the assemblage stood into the baptize to grab altar afore they silted up. He said they conducted a fingertip chase on their easily and knees, ample along.
They alternate on October 7 for a added abundant chase with a abounding dive team. The aggregation usually consisted of at atomic bristles associates and they were able to use specialised accessories like an underwater metal detector, he said.
Garda Byrne was in scuba accoutrement administering a fingertip chase in a concentrated breadth aback he begin a atramentous Nokia adaptable buzz aback cover, two adaptable buzz batteries, two atramentous anal plugs; one beyond and one smaller, two “C” 1.5v batteries and a red kidney-shaped article with a ability about-face believed to be a alien control.
Also begin was a atramentous single-opening balaclava like a ski-mask.
There was additionally a allotment of chicken braiding with a bond taken from the water. The items were all apparent to the cloister and articular by Garda Byrne.
Cross-examined by Mr Farrell, he agreed that a cardinal of added items were removed from the water, “as assorted as” a mattress, a desktop computer, a Dire Straits CD, a baby tub and a bottle jar with aqueous in it.
Other associates of the baptize unit, Enda Broderick, Jerry McGroarty and Eoin Ferriter, gave affirmation of what they begin during searches.
Gda Broderick said on October 7th he acclimated an underwater metal detector in the river, and as it fabricated a ping complete he would mark the breadth with a stick and items dug out by Gda Ferriter.
Items recovered on that date included a Nokia adaptable buzz and Sim card, a brace of glasses, sun glasses, gold bracelet, a additional Sim agenda (Tesco mobile), and a metal band.
They were all begin in abutting concentration, aloof south of the bridge, he said.
Gda McGroarty aboriginal abounding the arena on September 17th, anecdotic how they agitated out a fingertip chase addled breadth and little afterimage in knee aerial water.
He retrieved a haversack and adjacent he begin “the ends of two barrels of a attempt gun, cut off”.
He alternate on October 7th aback a added abundant chase was agitated out and recovered addition brace of shorts and a CD.
A mattress was the alone account he begin on the arctic ancillary of the bridge, he said.
Engineer Eamon Fleming told the cloister baptize levels Vartry Backlog in August 2012 were almighty aerial afterwards the "wettest summer on record."
They were almighty low at the aforementioned time the afterward year, he added.
Mr Fleming said levels were recorded every alive day by beheld assay and electronically on weekends and through the week.
He told advocate Anne Marie Lawlor, for the prosecution, that 2012 was a actual abnormal year because levels “never absolutely alone at all”.
“We had the wettest summer on record, annal go aback to the 1860s,” he said.
He said the baptize overflowed about continuously that year, alone bottomward beneath the overflow akin a few times.
Pointing to a addled breadth on a photograph, he said this would accept been covered in baptize that year with a abyss capricious to two metres. Coming up to the arch itself, he said, the abyss would accept been 3.5 to 4 metres in 2012.
In 2013, there was a actual warm, dry summer, the driest aback 1995. The backlog started to dry up in June 2013, the akin bottomward absolutely rapidly through to October.
He told Ms Lawlor the 2013 levels were abnormal but not unknown.
In the archetypal boilerplate year, the akin would accept alone 2 metres, but in 2013 it alone by 5 metres.
In August 2012, the baptize was aloof aloft overflow level. On the aforementioned dates in 2013, it was 1.77 metres below.
Garda Derek Coady articular a cardinal of items retrieved from the backlog to the court.
The cloister afterwards heard affirmation about how two of the three adherence abundance cards on the set of keys begin in the river were traced aback to Ms O’Hara.
Aidan Kelly of Dunnes Stores and Jean O’Donnell of Applegreen both accepted the consecutive cardinal on their abundance cards had been registered to Ms O’Hara.
Peter Curtis, of Specsavers in Dun Laoghaire, said gardai additionally visited him with a brace of glasses, which the cloister beforehand heard had been retrieved from the reservoir.
He said the consecutive cardinal on the anatomy of the glasses and the decree on anniversary bottle fabricated them different to one person, Ms O’Hara who had been a chump in the boutique aback 1997
The cloister assuredly heard from Patricia Martin, who bought a allowance laptop from Ms O’Hara about four years ago.
She handed it in to gardai on October 5th 2013 and gave them permission to analyse and accumulate it.
“It didn’t absolutely assignment properly,” she added.
Earlier today, the cloister heard how anglers fished chains cuffs, leg restraints, a “ball gag” and blinder out of a backlog three canicule afore the analysis of Elaine O’Hara’s remains.
William Fegan told the board he had noticed article agleam in the baptize while continuing on a arch over the baptize aback they absitively to cull it out.
Mr Fegan said he was a affiliate of Co Wicklow Anglers Association and was demography a circuit about the backlog in Roundwood on September 10 to accomplish abiding there was no actionable fishing demography place.
His brother James and a friend, Mark Quinn, abutting him and they were chatting. The akin of baptize in the basin was lower than usual.
“What aboriginal drew our absorption was a agleam metal object,” he said.
There was some chicken braiding which seemed to be afloat on top of the water.
“I anesthetized a animadversion to Mark: ‘I admiration what’s bottomward there?” he told the jury. “I anticipation it was like the arena of a bull’s nose. That was what it looked like to us.”
Mr Quinn told them he had a astriction band as he formed with granite.
He got the band and bargain it bottomward into the water, managing to angle assimilate the rope, appropriation that up as well.
They fished out handcuffs and “what appeared to be leg restraints” as able-bodied as a blah vest, a hoodie and what Mr Fegan anticipation was a aperture abstemiousness or a gag and a blindfold.
The items were removed from artificial affirmation accoutrements and apparent to the jury; the handcuffs and leg restraints were absorbed to anniversary added by a decayed chain.
The "bondage cuffs" had connected bolt straps with bedlam restraints with buckles on them.
The gag had a elastic brawl in the middle, with a band and a buckle.
Mr Fegan said aback they took all the items out of the water, they placed them on a bank abutting to breadth they had anchored their cars and he went to work.
“I went aback the afterward morning,” he said.
“I had a acceptable anticipate about what I found, I was active at night and had acceptable time to think.
“It was analytical on me and I went aback the afterward morning, put them in a bag and brought them to Roundwood Garda Station.”
Mr Fegan said he gave the bag, which was possibly a atramentous bag, to Garda Jim O' Donoghue and gave a abundant description of breadth the items were recovered.
He told the cloister that was baptize was usually 20 bottom abysmal anon beneath the arch they we were on, about it had alone to a little as 12 to 18 inches that day.
“It was actual unusual,” he continued.
“It was a actual hot summer and it had dropped. It would accept been like that for absolutely a while, at that akin a brace of months.”
Under cantankerous examination, Mr Fegan told defence advocate Ronan Kennedy that he had alone apparent the baptize as low maybe alert afore in his life.
While auctioning was not a botheration in the reservoir, he had begin a safe in the baptize one.
“General calm rubbish, or bodies throwing article in to the lake, is not a above problem,” he added.
The alley was declared as a bounded alley with a “fair amount” of cartage on it.
Mark Quinn told the Axial Criminal Cloister he chock-full on the arch to allocution to his acquaintance William Fegan, who showed him the chicken braiding and agleam altar in the water.
