Judge tells Dwyer jury 'it's over to you'

The jury in the trial of Graham Dwyer for the murder of Elaine O'Hara has resumed its deliberations.

They have said they want to finish by 4pm today.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the seven men and five women they now had control.

"It's over to you. And I wish you well," he said.

He told them that if they had any queries, they should not hesitate to come back and ask him.

He urged them not to give themselves an unrealistic deadline and to give it as long as it takes.

He said they had seen what happened when he had given himself an unrealistic deadline to complete his charge to them and had foolishly tried to stick to it.

He said there was so much at stake for everyone in this case.   He said if they had to sit past Friday, they should do so.

Mr Dwyer, 42, of Kerrymount Close, Foxrock in Dublin, denies the murder of Ms O'Hara, 36, in August 2012.

Mr Justice Hunt recalled the jurors this morning and said he had a "nasty surprise" for them.

He said in his eagerness to make sure he sent them out to begin their deliberations yesterday he may have "shifted up gears" too quickly in his remarks to them.

He said having thought about the matter overnight and discussed it, there were a couple of things he needed to tell them in a bit more detail.

He indicated his further remarks may take 45 minutes to an hour.

He revisited the evidence of Elaine O'Hara's psychiatrist, Dr Matt Murphy. 

He said he would do this because of the centrality of suicide in the case. He said this was an important issue for the jury to deal with.

In relation to the text messages in the case, he said they had a copy of all the text messages. He said prosecuting counsel Sean Guerin had referred to some in his closing speech and defence counsel, Remy Farrell had also referred to some.

Mr Justice Hunt said the closing speeches were important in a case like this based on circumstantial evidence.

He told the jury that they had to consider everything. He said they were free to reject any comment that he made.

Just because he had highlighted certain areas did not mean they should ignore other areas, he said.

Mr Justice Hunt also said he had told the jurors yesterday that circumstantial evidence was capable of proving something with mathematical certainty.

He said this was wrong. He said the standard of proof they had to apply was beyond reasonable doubt.

He said human affairs were not capable of proof to the extent of mathematical certainty.

Mathematical accuracy did not come into the case. It was not a required or achievable standard, he added.

The jury began their deliberations yesterday afternoon after a trial lasting almost ten weeks.

They asked if they could see videos of Graham Dwyer's interviews with gardaí after his arrest but were told they would get memos of the interviews agreed between the sides instead.

The jury foreman asked what they had to find Mr Dwyer guilty of.

Mr Justice Hunt reminded them they could find him guilty or not guilty of murder.

The jurors deliberated for 40 minutes before being sent home for the evening. 

They have asked for a flipchart and for documents and maps relating to mobile phone contact and coverage to be enlarged for them.

Jury reminded of legal principles

Mr Justice Hunt earlier reminded them of certain evidence in the case and of the legal principles they had to apply.

He has told them their verdict must be unanimous and that they can take as much time as they need.

The judge reminded the jury that this was a case based on circumstantial evidence and that he had cautioned them to exercise care.

He said Mr Guerin had outlined the similarities between events in Mr Dwyer's life and that of the user of the mobile phones.

He also said he had made a number of strong comments during his charge and said it was up to the jurors to make up their own minds.

He also reminded them that the prosecution had contended that lies told by Mr Dwyer during garda interviews were calculated lies and the jury should take them into account in the context of all the other circumstantial evidence.

The judge then reminded the jurors of the closing speeches of the prosecution and the defence.

He said Mr Farrell had pointed to a text message sent to Ms O'Hara before her disappearance by the phone allegedly used by Mr Dwyer, which directed her to take a painkiller at 5pm. 

He said the defence said this was not a text you would send in the context of a murder.

The judge said that it was an odd text.

He said oddness and this case seem to go hand-in-hand.

Judge addresses jury's question about conviction 

The judge told the jurors he wanted to address the question they had asked him yesterday evening.

The jury foreman had asked what they had to convict Mr Dwyer of.

Mr Justice Hunt said they were not obliged to convict him of anything.

He said the only verdict they could come to was to find Mr Dwyer guilty or not guilty of murder.

He said they were not being asked for example to consider an accident.

That was out of the picture, he said.

He said consent did not arise in relation to the charge of murder.

Mr Justice Hunt said the prosecution were required to prove murder by stabbing beyond reasonable doubt.

They had sought to do this by inference and had also sought to prove the accompanying intention to kill or cause serious injury to Ms O'Hara.

He said murder was the only offence they had to consider.

He said a criminal trial was tightly focused. It was not about irrelevant speculation.

He told the jurors they must confine themselves to the verdict they had been asked to return. 

They must make a decision on the evidence and what could reasonably be inferred from the evidence and the issues argued by the lawyers.

They had not been asked to consider any other offence or any other kind of verdict.

They could find Mr Dwyer guilty of murder by stabbing beyond reasonable doubt, unless they believed there was a reasonable hypothesis consistent with an innocent view of the facts.

He said the case being put forward by the defence was based on Mr Dwyer's garda interviews - he said he did not do it and they were not his phones.

Mr Justice Hunt said Mr Dwyer told family members in writing this woman committed suicide and it was nothing to do with him, although he may have known her at one point in time.

He said if the jurors believed suicide was a reasonable possibility based on the evidence they had to acquit.

Mr Justice Hunt said even if they rejected the defence case, they still had to be satisfied with the prosecution case beyond reasonable doubt.

He said they had to feed in all of the evidence and all of their own experience into their deliberations.

Just before the jury foreman left for lunch he told the judge he did not mean his question yesterday afternoon to come out in the way it had.

The judge told him that he himself had a first class honours degree in those kind of matters.

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