GARDAI asked members of a model aircraft club where Graham Dwyer was a member about seeing a dead sheep near their clubhouse, his murder trial has heard.

The architect, a 42-year-old father of three, denies the murder of childcare worker Elaine O'Hara at Kilakee in the Dublin Mountains on August 22, 2012. It is the prosecution's case that Mr Dwyer, who was arrested on October 17, 2013, stabbed Ms O'Hara to death for his own sexual gratification.

Expand Close Architect Graham Dwyer is accused of the murder of Elaine O’Hara (inset), from Killiney, Co Dublin / Facebook

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Whatsapp Architect Graham Dwyer is accused of the murder of Elaine O’Hara (inset), from Killiney, Co Dublin

Denis Brennan, a member of the Shankill Radio Flying Club in 2012, yesterday said gardai asked him - on the day Mr Dwyer was arrested in October 2013 - about a dead sheep near the model airplane enthusiasts' clubhouse. Under cross examination, he told Remy Farrell SC, for Mr Dwyer, that gardai had specifically asked about the dead sheep on the morning of Mr Dwyer's arrest in October 2013. There were also emails sent out by the secretary of the club asking about the dead sheep, he said.

The court heard Mr Brennan made a recent statement to gardai in his house on January 8 last and by then he had remembered there had been a dead sheep. Mr Farrell questioned why, out of hundreds of witnesses, gardai had recently called in on Mr Brennan and how his memory had "improved substantially".

Clubhouse

Mr Brennan said he did not remember seeing a sheep in the area near their clubhouse when first asked by gardai, but recalled it when other members of the club had spoken about it.

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Mr Brennan, who sliced his finger after an accident at the club on July 25, 2012, said he couldn't initially remember when he saw the dead sheep, adding that he had seen it before his July 2012 injury.

The jury was shown footage of Mr Dwyer flying model aircraft in June and August 2012 and footage of Mr Dwyer with his wife and their two young children at a family day in the club on August 19, 2012.

The trial continues.

Irish Independent