Joe O’Reilly calm as judgment postponed for another day

A NEWSPAPER splashed with a picture of himself and the headline “Judgment Day” lay on the green carpet floor beside Joe O’Reilly in a courtroom packed full of people waiting to hear his fate.

But it was not to be. O’Reilly and the many onlookers in court number 2 will be forced to wait yet another day for the judgment on whether or not he is guilty of bludgeoning his wife, Rachel O’Reilly, to death in the family home almost three years ago.

Mr Justice Barry White had set 7pm as a cut off point for the jury to reach a verdict, before sending the nine men and two women to a hotel for the night. As they discussed the issues behind closed doors, a gathering of journalists, legal representatives, O’Reilly’s family and that of his deceased wife Rachel, waited anxiously for word.

Ten minutes after being sent to deliberate just after 3pm, a knock came on the door connecting the jury to the courtroom. O’Reilly straightened his jacket and sat up.

But it was, as the judge said, “a false alarm”. Members of the jury had only come back to request a flip board and marker. Ten minutes later there was another knock. Again the tiring assembly straightened up and stood alert.

This time a jury member wanted a cigarette. A garda had to swear on oath that he would not talk to the jury member when he walked them outside to get their nicotine fix.

When the jury came in the third time, just before 6pm, it seemed more likely that they would have an answer. But the jury wanted clarification on two matters. They wanted to go over the evidence provided by Derek Querney, the main defence witness for O’Reilly, who said on Wednesday that he might have been wrong about the alibi he gave for the accused.

Members of the jury scribbled furiously when the judge read out their second request, evidence by a garda who re-traced the steps of a trip it was claimed O’Reilly made on the morning of the murder, based on phone records.

The family of Rachel O’Reilly have been present to hear the 146 witnesses over 18 days.

Rachel’s mother, Rose Callaly, could not keep her eyes off the man accused of killing her daughter, as Mr Justice White read through a summary of evidence and talked about his affair with another woman. She sharpened her stare when the judge spoke about the letter O’Reilly put in Rachel’s grave saying “sorry”.

The judge said the sorry could have been for any number of things, because many families have “skeletons in the closet”.

Rachel’s sister, Anne, then took her mother’s hand and the two women continued to stare at O’Reilly.

But he sat there still, a huge hunched figure, gripping a bottle of sparkling Ballygowan in one hand, and a leather pouch holding his phone in the other.

When the crowd assembled after 7pm to await the jury’s return, with or without a decision, O’Reilly calmly read the Evening Herald.

And in the minutes before the judge called on everyone to rise, O’Reilly slowly and calmly read a news story about himself.

As if it was somebody else’s judgment day that had finally arrived.