Accused admits possessing key mobile phone

MURDER accused Joe O’Reilly admitted to gardaí that he had possession of the mobile phone that placed him close to the scene where his wife Rachel was battered to death.

In an interview with detectives following his first arrest six weeks after Rachel O’Reilly was murdered, O’Reilly said he had only one mobile phone, that he had it with him all day the day Rachel died and that he was the person who answered it.

His trial at the Central Criminal Court has already heard evidence from experts in mobile phone technology that data extracted from mobile phone masts placed his phone in or around the family home in north Co Dublin between 9am and 10am on the day of Rachel’s murder.

O’Reilly said he was at the Broadstone bus depot in Dublin city centre around that time. The 35-year-old father of two denies murdering Rachel, aged 30, at their home at Lambay View, Baldarragh, the Naul, Co Dublin, on October 4, 2004.

Detective Sergeant Sean Grennan of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told the court yesterday that he went to Drogheda Garda Station to interview O’Reilly following his arrest on November 17, 2004.

This first interview started at 11.40am and ended 26 minutes later. Asked whether he understood what he was arrested for, O’Reilly replied: “I do.” Asked what that was, he replied: “Suspicion of murdering my wife.” The interview finished at 12.06pm to allow for a visit from O’Reilly’s solicitor, but resumed again at 12.44pm.

He then answered questions about his mobile phone and it was put to him that he wasn’t denying killing his wife. “I deny killing Rachel,” he replied. He was interviewed a third time that afternoon by Det Grda Lorraine Travers and agreed to provide samples of his blood and hair.

He was also asked about a bag he had with him at the Jackie Skelly gym early on the morning of Rachel’s murder and replied that he thought he had handed it over to the gardaí. When told that it was not in Garda possession he said it was either at his home or his mother’s house.

Asked about the contents he said it held towels, gym gear and runners, and that his mother would have washed them because they would have been damp and dirty. Asked why he did not travel with his main alibi, colleague Derek Quearney, to Broadstone the morning of the murder, he said Derek was hanging back to finish some work and he wanted to get a headstart.

He was also asked if he had any regrets about the murder of his wife, he said he regretted that she was murdered. Asked: “What drove you to do it?” he replied: “I didn’t do it.”

He was asked again: “You killed your wife, Rachel, didn’t you?” and he replied: “No.”

That evening, while still in detention, he was interviewed a fourth time, but this interview was suspended for 10 minutes to allow for a visit by Rachel’s mother, Rose Callaly.

When Mrs Callaly left, Det Grda Jim McGovern took over questioning and asked O’Reilly if he had ever seen a steel bar in his kitchen. O’Reilly replied that he did not think so but was not sure. He was also shown some CCTV footage taken from a security camera at Murphy’s Quarry near his family home, showing passing vehicles. He was released after 10pm.

O’Reilly was arrested again on March 14, 2006, and brought to Drogheda Garda Station, where he was asked to comment on a mobile phone text message, which it had been discovered was sent from his phone to that of Nikki Pelley, the woman he said he ended an affair three days before Rachel’s murder.

The message, sent on the evening of October 1, 2004, read: “All the boys down the beach. All that is missing is you.”

It ended with three X marks to denote kisses. O’Reilly was asked if he remembered it, to which he replied: “No.”

In another interview that day with Det Grda Malachy Dunne, O’Reilly said he had nothing to say about the reason for his arrest. Det Grda Dunne said to him: “At no stage have you said you did not kill Rachel. Can you look us in the eyes and say you didn’t do it?”

Det Grda Dunne recorded in his notes of the interview that O’Reilly looked him in the eye and said: “I did not kill Rachel.” He was asked again if he denied killing Rachel and replied: “Yes.”

He was interviewed again on the evening of March 14, 2006, and was asked to comment on a brown satchel, camcorder bag and jewellery box shown to him. The court has heard evidence these items were found by the side of the road near the O’Reilly home a short time after the murder. O’Reilly said he did not recognise the satchel and did not know if it could have been Rachel’s. “Rachel had a lot of bags,” he said. He said the camcorder bag and the camera inside did look like their property.

He did not recognise the jewellery box but recognised a ring, locket and badge inside as belonging to Rachel. Asked if one of the items was Rachel’s engagement ring, he said he thought so but was only “nearly sure”.