O’Reilly seeks to dismiss conviction

Lawyers for wife-killer Joe O’Reilly have been asked to indicate whether evidence will be adduced relating to issues raised in his grounds of appeal, which include circumstances in which a book of evidence was left in the jury room during his 2007 trial.

O’Reilly, 40, has personally an application under section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993 to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman said the case had “fallen into some vagueness from a procedural point of view” and the court had directed O’Reilly’s attendance so the case “might be given some shape”.

He said that issues raised in the grounds of appeal, including circumstances where the book of evidence was left in the jury room at the 2007 trial, as well as meetings between various people, needed to be established in evidence and not simply asserted.

Mr Justice Hardiman said it appeared it was necessary for the grounds to be verified by an affidavit.

Counsel for O’Reilly, Ronan Munro BL, said his position extended to an instruction to attend this morning’s hearing from O’Reilly’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer, who had just come on record.

He said he believed it would be beneficial for both parties to review the file.

Mr Justice Hardiman said the case could not “sit in the list in a strange way” and while O’Reilly was entitled to an application the matter must proceed rapidly.

Mr Justice Hardiman put the case back until Mar 7, and while the court would not propose a condition that an affidavit must be ready, “some indication” of the how the case is to proceed must be given if it is proposed not to swear such an affidavit.

In 2007, O’Reilly was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife at their home in the Naul, Co Dublin. The badly beaten body of Rachel O’Reilly, 30, was found in the bedroom of her home on Oct 4, 2004.

O’Reilly lost an appeal against that conviction in 2009, and in Aug 2012 failed in a subsequent attempt to have his conviction quashed after arguing his detention in the Midlands Prison was unlawful.

In November, O’Reilly was granted legal aid in his bid to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of justice after the State lodged no objection.

However, the State did indicate that there would be significant opposition to any bail application put forward by O’Reilly.